Moraea spathulata(L.f.) Klatt

WFO wfo-0000784754 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Moraea spathulata, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. a Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-09-11 / obs. 175033909
Moraea spathulata, photographed by Di Turner
fig. b Di Turner, CC0 1.0 / obs. 157324072
Moraea spathulata, photographed by James Deacon
fig. c James Deacon, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 103436491
Moraea spathulata, photographed by James Deacon
fig. d James Deacon, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 103221054
Moraea spathulata, photographed by Rebecca Ryen-Stols
fig. e Rebecca Ryen-Stols, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 100632645
Moraea spathulata, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. f Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 77162655
Moraea spathulata, photographed by Andrew Gillespie
fig. g Andrew Gillespie, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 25522630
Moraea spathulata, photographed by Andrew Gillespie
fig. h Andrew Gillespie, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 25522497

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 8 botanical countries

Regions where Moraea spathulata is native: Cape Provinces, Eswatini, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Zimbabwe Cape ProvincesEswatiniFree StateKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMozambiqueNorthern ProvincesZimbabwe
Native distribution of Moraea spathulata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Cape Provinces CPP AFRICA
Eswatini SWZ
Free State OFS
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Mozambique MOZ
Northern Provinces TVL
Zimbabwe ZIM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 9 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Iris spathacea Thunb.
  • Iris spathulata L.f.
  • Moraea balenii Stent
  • Moraea longispatha Klatt
  • Moraea spathacea (Thunb.) Ker Gawl.
  • Moraea spathacea var. natalensis Baker
  • Moraea spathulata subsp. autumnalis Goldblatt
  • Moraea spathulata subsp. saxosa Goldblatt
  • Moraea spathulata subsp. transvaalensis Goldblatt

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.