Pauridia pygmaea Snijman & Kocyan

Plants dwarf, 1.0-6.5 cm tall. Corm somewhat broadly conical, covered with heavy, fibrous tunics, base flat, 8-15 mm diam., often surrounded by a narrow rim; fibres thick, pale to dark brown, firmly attached to basal rim, converging distally into short acute tips; roots spreading from just above basal rim. Cataphylls membranous, 7-26 mm long. Leaves 2-3, shortly sheathing above base, erect to spreading, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 10-55 x 1.0-2.5 mm, canaliculate to 3-angled in cross section, shiny green, firm, margin entire. Inflorescences 2 or more in flower at a time, 2(3)-flowered, shorter to longer than leaves; scape 3-13 x ca. 1 mm, laterally compressed, whitish green; bracts 2(3), clasping pedicels at base, linear, 5-11 x ca. 1 mm, pale green. Flowers pedicellate, stellate, white, backed with green, sometimes red-tipped in outer whorl, often sweetly scented; pedicels suberect to ca. spreading, remaining so in fruit, 4-30 x ca. 0.5 mm, green or rarely pale reddish green; tepals 6, narrowly elliptical, 3.5-5.5 mm long, outer 2.0-2.5 mm wide, minutely mucronate, inner 1.5-2.5 mm wide. Stamens 6, slightly arched around stigma, equal, white; filaments inserted on a broad, raised ovary dome away from tepals, up to 1.5 mm long, shorter than anthers; anthers sagittate, latrorse, ca. 1.5-2.5 x ca. 0.7 mm, basal lobes spreading, ca. 0.3-1.0 mm long, connective broader than thecae when fresh, notched at apex, often with a yellow patch proximally; pollen white. Ovary shortly obconical, ca. 1.5-2 x 2 mm, 3-locular; style 0.4-1.5 mm long; stigma branches suberect, broadly triangular, 0.6-3.0 x 0.4-1.2 mm, more or less equalling stamens, pale green or white, densely papillose, basal lobes spreading, up to 1 mm long. Capsules shallowly cup-shaped, ca. 1.5-2 x 2.0 mm, dehiscence circumscissile. Seeds spherical, ca. 0.46 x 0.40 mm; testa black to golden brown, bluntly echinate in ca. 11-14 widely spaced, longitudinal rows, outer periclinal cell wall surrounded by a flat, finely pitted rim.