Review of the southern African Moraea ciliata complex (Iridaceae: Iridoideae) including the three new taxa M. flava and M. ciliata subsp. cuprina and subsp. lutescens

• We examine patterns of morphological variation in Moraea ciliata.
• Moraea flava is a new species from the Roggeveld and Klein Roggeveld.
• Moraea ciliata now comprises three subspecies.

The Moraea ciliata complex (Moraea subg. Acaules) from the southern African winter-rainfall zone currently includes four vegetatively similar species: a widespread M. ciliata plus three more localized species, Moraea longipes, Moraea macronyx and Moraea tricolor. Examination of herbarium collections and wild populations of M. ciliata throughout its range indicates that the recognition of one new species and two subspecies better reflects the ecological and morphological patterns in the species. The new species Moraea flava from the western Karoo with pale yellow flowers and smooth leaves with thickened and crisped margins is sometimes sympatric with typical blue–flowered M. ciliata but blooms earlier in the season. M. ciliata subsp. cuprina is recognized for a series of pink- to red-flowered populations from deep sands along the Atlantic coast of Western Cape often with two inflorescences per plant and unusually long capsules. M. ciliata subsp. lutescens from stony sandstone-derived soils, mostly of montane habitats in Western Cape between Worcester and the Gifberg, differs consistently from blue- or white-flowered subsp. ciliata in its slightly smaller yellow flowers, narrower, usually hairless leaves, and short stamens with the filaments united for up to half their length. Unusual populations of small, white-flowered plants flowering in May and June from west and south of Swellendam are provisionally included in subsp. ciliata. These taxonomic changes render subsp. ciliata morphologically more homogeneous but still with a wide geographic range extending from the Cape Peninsula north to Springbok in Northern Cape and east though the western Karoo and Upper Karoo to near Lady Grey in Eastern Cape.