Raphionacme palustris Venter & R.L.Verh.

Erect, glabrous herb of up to 0.5 m high. Tuber(s): taproot tuber 0.1-0.25 x 0.1-0.2 m, spindle-shaped to cylindrically spindle-shaped; adventitious root tubers sub-spherical to cylindrically spindle-shaped. Aerial stems up to 0.5 m long, 5 mm diameter, erect or sub-erect, becoming violet with age, branching dichotomous or opposite. Leaves petiolate; petiole 2-10 mm long, violet; blade 50-60 x 20-30 mm, oblong-ovate, above dark green, beneath green, margin violet, veins translucent, secondary veins divaricate and 10-19 to a side, apex obtuse-mucronate, base cuneate to obtuse. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, violet, solitary monochasium or plumose from a few monochasia, each monochasium few-flowered, peduncles 10-20 mm long, pedicels 5-10 mm long; bracts 3 mm long, very narrowly ovate. Sepals 3 x 1 mm, narrowly triangular, brownish-violet, apex attenuate. Corolla tube 3-4 mm long, campanulate, outside pale greenish-violet, inside whitish-violet; lobes spreading, 8-10 x 5 mm, obovate to oblong-obovate, outside pale greenish-violet, inside whitish-violet, apex obtuse. Corona whitish-violet; coronal feet fleshy, apically lobed, free; lobe 1-2 mm long, angular-ovate, arched over style-head, apex bifurcate. Stamens arising from inner base of coronal feet; filaments 1-2 mm long, filiform, violet; anthers ±2 mm long, narrowly angular-ovate, lemon-yellow, full length slits, apex violet and acute. Ovaries 1-2 mm long, style 1-3 mm long, terete; style-head 2 x 3 mm, broadly rhomboid, pale violet; translators 1.2-2.3 mm long, spoon oblong-ovate. Gynostegium in corolla mouth. Follicles erect, normally solitary, 180-270 x 8-10 mm, very narrowly cylindrical obovoid, apex acuminate. Seeds 8-10 m long, obliquely narrowly oblong, pale brown, smooth, margin thickened; coma 40-50 mm long, whitish.