Moraea polyanthos slender plant

Moraea polyanthos often grows branched flowering stems, becoming many-flowered. All cormous plants start small from seed, however, resulting in first season flowering usually being a modest affair, even in the species that grow big.

One narrow, channelled radical leaf trails here, another up the stem is also dry in its upper parts. A couple of pale grey-beige spathes or bracts clutch the stem. They may be floral starting points, if life had been easier or may still become so.

This plant seen somewhere in the east of the Little Karoo also resembles the lesser-known M. lazulina (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).