Moraea longiaristata

I grow some plants that I'm sure are this species, and others that are a bit of a mystery. Let's start with the species.

In my records, I call this longiaristata form b, because it's the second form I obtained under that name. I received the seeds of this beautiful little flower from Cameron and Rhoda McMaster in South Africa:

It took seven years for this species to go from seed to flower. That's unusually long for Moraea, and I don't know if it was due to the plants or to my cultural practices. I started them in pots and then moved them to a raised bed.

One individual finally bloomed in May of 2019, later than almost every other Moraea in my collection. It's a small flower, under an inch across (about 2 cm). But its intricate markings make it worthwhile. Here are a few other views:

Since only one plant bloomed, I self-pollinated one of its flowers (no luck, which is usual for most Moraea species). I also made crosses with a couple of other species and hybrids. Two of those crosses took, so this species is interfertile with at least part of subgenus Vieusseuxia.

If you look closely at the center of the photos above you can see the long straight inner tepals that are a key identifier for this species (they're the little white strips in the middle of the flower that look like a shepherd's crook). Keep those in mind because they relate to the story that follows.

Now for the mystery, which I grow as longiaristata form a. Below you'll see photos of some white flowers with a varying number of blue spots on them. I received them from a friend, who grew them as M. longiaristata. He's a very careful grower, so I am sure he received them under this name. But when they bloomed I puzzled over their identification, because according to the books, M. longiaristata is supposed to have the single, straight inner tepal you see in the photos above. The ones I received have an inner tepal with three points on it, the middle one curled. That may sound like a minor distinction, but the biologists use the inner tepal as an identifier for many species.

For comparison, you can see some verified photos of M. longiaristata here.

I thought these might be M. unguiculata, which has a curled inner tepal. I posted some of the photos below to iSpot, a site that was dedicated to nature observation in South Africa (the equivalent today is iNaturalist). The answer I got from the Moraea experts there is that this might actually be M. longiaristata, but could also be M. algoensis, or a hybrid between the two species.

For my own records, I'm going to leave it marked as "M. longiaristata?" because I trust the grower who gave it to me. But I am being careful not to mix it with the species.

By the way, if you have any ideas on its identification, please post a comment.

This individual has relatively few spots...

To me, the flower below looks a bit like pictures of M. tricuspidata, but it's a very small plant and doesn't bloom late enough in the season.

This one has a lot of spots...

As you can see, these are very small plants.

Here's that three-lobed, curved inner tepal.

Whatever its identification, this is a cute little thing, and it's the parent of some hybrids that have a ton of spots on them.