Witsenia maura

Witsenia maura, commonly known in Afrikaans as bokmakieriestert (bokmakierie tail), is an evergreen shrub, a woody iris growing from a woody caudex to heights from 1 m to 2 m. Resprouting can happen, but reseeding is more common. The sparsely branched stems are upright or inclined and compressed, becoming cylindrical below. Witsenia is a monotypic genus in the Iridaceae family. 

The narrowly sword-shaped leaves grow in two-ranked, stem-tip fans. The fibrous, leathery blades have no midribs.

The flowers grow in stem-tip pairs, subtended by leathery bracts and spathes, remaining closed. The tubular, radially symmetrical flowers are two-toned, greenish black or purplish black topped by velvety yellow tepal lobes, the tepals clawed at the base and velvety hairy on the outside. The nectar-bearing corolla tubes are about 5 cm long. The filaments are flattened and the anthers oblong. The style is three-notched, the inferior ovary globose. Flowering happens in autumn and winter.

The fruit is a spindle-shaped, somewhat woody capsule producing only one smooth seed per locule.

The species distribution is in the south of the Cape Peninsula, the Hottentots Holland and Kogelberg Mountains to the Riviersonderend Mountains.

The habitat is moist and marshy fynbos on lower slopes where the plants form colonies. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; Bean and Johns, 2005; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist; https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).