Moraea huttonia Common name: Large Golden Vlei Moreae; Sotho name: teale-ea-noka

The mighty uMngeni river rises on a plateau high above Dargle/Fort Nottingham/Impendle at a special place known as uMngeni Vlei. Here the river is just a little stream running through the high altitude grassland and into the large wetland before heading down the hills.

At the moment the stream banks have tall clumps of bright yellow Moraea huttonia clustered along them. A member of the large Iris family, Moraea huttonia is one of 15 Moreae species found in summer rainfall area of KwaZulu Natal, while there are close to 100 species in the Cape. The sweetly scented flowers have large deep yellow nectar guides on the outer tepals and a purply-brown splotch on the style crest and are held erect above the long strap-like leaves.

While it makes a lovely garden plant on the edges of a pond, it germinates easily from seed, so please don't be tempted to dig up a corm in the wild.

Click on any of the links below to see another Dargle wildflower