Moraea gawleri

Moraea gawleri is a slender, cormous perennial. When flowering it reaches 15 cm to 45 cm in height. The plant is wiry-stemmed and branching.

The flowers are iris-like with short floral spathes. The flower colour is variable, including yellow, cream, orange, brick-red and pinkish purple, sometimes bicoloured. Dark brown, narrow rings may surround the nectar guide markings on the outer tepals, as in the picture. Straight, outward radiating veins are present on the tepals, sometimes more on the outer ones.

The erect style branches are conspicuous above the tepals. The style is either the same colour as the tepals, or about white on differently coloured tepals. 

Flowering happens from midwinter to midspring. Flowers open in mid-morning and last till mid-afternoon of the same day.

The species distribution is from Namaqualand in the Northern Cape, widespread in the Western Cape to Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape.

The habitat is sandy or clayey soil on flats and slopes, often in renosterveld but also in fynbos and succulent Karoo. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).