Moraea inclinata

Moraea inclinata, commonly the nodding wild moraea or the common blue moraea, is a cormous perennial reaching heights from 30 cm to 90 cm. The corm is about 15 mm in diameter. The bend in the upper stem may have given rise to the specific name of inclinata. The name may, however, also have been derived from the curving of the stigma branches. Something ironic about the common names: the flowers don't ever seem to nod and many of them aren't blue but mauve to lilac.

The slender plant grows just one long, narrow, channelled leaf, emerging from high up the stem and longer than it. 

The species distribution is in the southern parts of KwaZulu-Natal, the north-eastern corner of the Eastern Cape, the eastern Free State and Lesotho. This photo was taken in grassland between Pietermaritzburg and the Lesotho border among foothills of the Drakensberg.

The habitat is damp grassland at elevations from 1525 m to 2400 m. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; iNaturalist; www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).