Moraea miniata flower

The flower of this Moraea miniata seen in the Biedouw Valley in September has inner tepals narrowing to the base, while the outer ones are oblong. All six tepal tips are rounded with uneven notching, asymmetrical points and folding as if this minor part was unimportant in planning and production.

Several Moraea species or tulpe, some overlapping in distribution range, share this salmon pink tepal colouring; not necessarily the thin dark line down the centre of each tepal. Compare for instance M. aspera, M. vallisbelli and M. bifida.

The yellow patch in the flower centre varies among the similar species, also within the M. miniata species itself. The mark on each tepal may be pointed, rather than rounded, there may be some dark colouring immediately outside it on the salmon part and the dark spots in the yellow may be distributed differently (Manning, 2007; Manning and Goldblatt, 1997; iNaturalist).