Moraea tricolor

Moraea tricolor is a cormous and stemless perennial reaching heights from 5 cm to 15 cm. The plant grows three to five dark green to greyish leaves that are sometimes hairy and overlap at the base.

The purple, red or yellow flowers are vanilla-scented. The inner three spreading tepals are short, lacking the rounded, basal, nectar guides of the outer ones. The style crests are broad ending in pointed, triangular tips. Flowering happens from before midwinter to early spring, each flower lasting only about the midpart of one day.

The species distribution is in the far southwest of the Western Cape from Citrusdal to Stilbaai but excluding the Peninsula.

The habitat is sandy and clay flats that are seasonally moist. The species is considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century, due to farming, urbanisation and alien plant invasion (Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Manning, 2007; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).