Watsonia tabularis Mathews & L.Bolus

Plants 900-1500 mm high. Corm depressed-globose, 40-60 mm diam.; tunics coarsely netted. Stem branched. Leaves several, lower ± basal, uppermost leaf partly sheathing stem, ± half as long as spike, lanceolate, 20-35 mm wide, midrib and margins lightly thickened and hyaline; bract-like cauline leaves 80-200 mm long, conspicuously inflated, sheathing. Spike 20-to 30-flowered; bracts herbaceous and usually reddish, dry and brownish apically, 10-15 mm long, inner as long as or slightly longer, forked apically for up to 3 mm. Flowers zygomorphic, reddish to pinkish orange with paler, nearly white inner tepals, often white at base of tepals and in tube; perianth tube with lower part 20-25 mm long, emerging 10-18 mm from bracts, upper part horizontal, subcylindric, 20-25 mm long, 7-9 mm diam. at mouth; tepals oblanceolate, 20-26 x 9-17 mm, all suberect with dorsal somewhat hooded and lower median slightly recurved. Filaments unilateral and arcuate, 35-40 mm long, well exserted from tube; anthers 10-12 mm long, violet. Style dividing between middle and apex of anthers, branches ± 6 mm long. Capsules large, oblong-truncate, 20-30 x 8-11 mm. Seeds 9-11 x 2.5-3.5 mm, with lateral wing enlarged distally and ± twice as long as seed body.