Description
(syn. Homeria marlothii)
This makes one long, grey-green leaf and a tall and tough wiry spike bearing flowers of a bright, golden yellow. Each 4-5 cm wide bloom is slightly nodding but lift it up and you will see that the bright gold is in fact spotted and dotted with deep Indian red in the throat over an orange, star-shaped ground. Some forms have green spotting over a sulphur background and are none the less beautiful for this variation. There is a deeply cleft orange and yellow boss in the centre of each blossom which bears orange anthers. The six petals are all the same, which is unusual in the genus and the flower looks remarkably like a Lilium.
In time this vigorous plant makes a large corm and it thus needs a good root run, in the open ground, not in a pot. A well-drained, fertile loam in full sun with less water in winter suits it well.
Originally from the Hantamberg Mountains and the Oorlogskloof River in the western Karoo. First described in 1929 as Homeria marlothii and transferred to Moraea in 1998 by Goldblatt.
