Lapeirousia are
cormous plants, usually small, and bearing
deciduous leaves. The corms are small, campanulate to triangular in outline, and flat-based. The
tunics comprise hard, woody layers, of which the innermost layers are entire. The leaves are basal, often solitary. They may be plane and falcate, or linear and ribbed. Various forms of
scape occur; they may be either subterranean or aerial, and simple or branched. The
inflorescence is a spike, sometimes contracted and
fasciculate or a
corymbose panicle. There are firm, green
bracts, either small and subequal, or with the outer bract very large, often keeled, crisped and ribbed. The
perianth may be either
actinomorphic or
zygomorphic; the tube short or very long. It might be slender and cylindrical, adapted to
pollination by long-tongued flies, or it might be funnel-shaped. The flowers' lobes may be subequal and spreading, or unequal with upper largest petals erect, the lower three forming a lip. The
stamens are symmetrically arranged. The fruit is a membranous capsule containing many small seeds, either globose or angled by pressure. ==Species==