Strumaria pygmaea Snijman

Bulb solitary or clumped, small, globose, about 10 mm diam., with thinly fibrous light brown outer tunics, whitish within; neck slender, up to 60 mm long. Leaves absent or just emerging at anthesis, 2(-3), suberect to spreading, filiform, up to 110 x 1 mm, hemiterete, glabrous, bright green, subtended by a subterranean amplexicaul cataphyll; seedlings glabrous. Inflorescence spreading widely, 25-90 mm across; scape extremely slender and wiry, spirally twisted throughout its length or basally, reaching up to 30-70 mm, 0.25 mm diam., reddish brown, persisting until the leaves die down; spathe valves linear-lanceolate, 5-13 x 0.75-1.0 mm; bracteoles not visible. Flowers 3-8, stellate, pure white, turning cream with age or occasionally with a pale pink blush towards the base of the dorsal surface, scented; the innermost of the cymes often aborting; pedicels upwardly curved to straight, 20-60 mm long, green and stout, contrasting strongly with the slender wiry scape; remaining green until the leaves die down. Tepals free to the base, outspread, ovate-lanceolate, 4.5-6.0 x 1.5-2.0 mm. Stamens more or less equalling the tepals, ascending to widely spreading; filaments separate, adnate to the base of the swollen style, laterally broadened and with a slight longitudinal ventral ridge in the proximal half, tapering gradually upwards; anthers dorsifixed, 1.5 mm long before opening, dark maroon; pollen cream-coloured. Ovary with (0-)1-2 ovules per locule. Style up to 3.5 mm long, stout and cylindric in the proximal half, with an overhanging scalloped upper margin, abruptly narrowed into a slender, terete column distally, with nectar collecting in 3 droplets between the inner filaments and the style base. Seeds 2-3 mm diam.