Babiana tubiflora flower

The unscented, laterally symmetrical or zygomorphic flowers of Babiana tubiflora grow in a short spike, each subtended by two short, green bracts. The inner bract of each flower is forked at its tip. 

The corolla is long-tubed, ending in six spreading cream or white tepals, sometimes marked in red on the lower three. The tube length ranges from 5 cm to 10 cm. The tepals are narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate, meaning they are lance-shaped with their widest parts nearer either base or tip. In the case of these tepals these differences are small, i.e. the lengths compared are close to equal. In picture the margins fold in variably in the upper tepal parts.

The ovary is hairless. The style has three short branches.

Flowering happens late in winter to after midspring (Manning, 2007; Manning and Goldblatt, 1996; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist).