Wurmbea elatior flower

Wurmbea elatior, the pepper-and-salt flower, is a cormous perennial regrowing its deciduous above-ground parts in spring. In flower the plant may be over 35 cm tall.

Flowers grow in a spike with no bracts. The six tepals are marked in glossy purple halfway to their tips, the cream coloured tepals curving slightly inwards. Flowers are 1,5 cm in diameter.

The distribution of this plant is mainly inland in the Eastern Cape, the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg and the eastern Free State; also widespread in Lesotho.

The habitat is montane grassland, usually near water. The habitat species is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).