Moraea alticola flower

The flowers of Moraea alticola are pale yellow with darker yellow nectar guides on the spreading outer tepals. These darker patches are rounded, each shaped like half an ellipse. Faint lines indicating veins can be seen running across the tepal surfaces. The inner three tepals are smaller and erect, but similarly pale yellow and without the nectar guides. (All Moraea and Iridaceae flowers have two concentric whorls of three tepals each, in normal monocot fashion.)

Small network-like remains of the inner cataphyll, the plant’s earliest leaf growth, may be seen around the stem and leaf at the base of the plant, being discarded from time to time.

The species has found its way into the horticultural market where it seems to do well, also internationally. This plant was seen flowering in November in the Drakensberg (iSpot; www.pacificbulbsociety.org).