Watsonia versfeldii Mathews & L.Bolus

Plants 1200-2000 mm high. Corm depressed-globose, 50-60 mm diam.; tunics coarsely netted. Stem erect, with several short, ascending branches. Leaves 6 to 8, mostly basal, uppermost sheathing stem below, 1/3-2/3 as long as spike, lanceolate, 25-40 mm wide, apple-green, midrib weakly defined, margins lightly thickened and hyaline; cauline leaves 2 or more, sheathing and slightly inflated. Spike up to 24-flowered; bracts dry and brownish above or entirely, ± sticky, 15-26 mm long, inner ± as long as or slightly shorter, emarginate or forked for 1-2 mm. Flowers zygomorphic, purplish pink; perianth tube narrowly funnel-shaped, lower part 15-22 mm long, emerging 10-12 mm from bracts, upper part gradually flaring or almost cylindric and nearly horizontal to slightly pendulous, 20-25(-30) mm long, 6-10 mm diam. at mouth; tepals spreading, lanceolate, 33-46 x 10-15 mm. Filaments unilateral, extending horizontally beneath upper tepal, 25-33 mm long; anthers 12-16 mm long, purple. Style arching above stamens, dividing near anther apices, branches ± 5 mm long. Capsules ovoid to narrowly obconic, 18-35 x 8-10 mm. Seeds unequally 2-winged, with prominent distal wing.

Recorded growing in disturbed areas, damp rises in a swamp, wetlands, seasonally wet to permanently damp slope above creekline, along roadsides (in developed areas and dry sclerophyll forests), on embankments and in coastal dune scrub.

Cultivated ornamental.