The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Babiana grandiflora
Grand Bobbejaantjie is a small, low-growing geophyte from the coastal plains of Namaqualand that sends up large, mirror-symmetric blue flowers from an underground corm each season. It needs sandy, well-drained soil and a dry, sunny spot, with rest in the dry season.
Babiana grandiflora is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae. It is a perennial plant of 8–14 cm (3.1–5.5 in) high that emerges at the start of every growing season from an underground corm. It has pleated sideways flattened leaves. It can be distinguished from other species of bobbejaantjie mainly by its very large, mirror-symmetric deep to pale bluish flowers near the ground. It also has very short filaments crowded near the dorsal tepal, resulting in the anthers being largely hidden within the floral cup of the funnel-shaped perianth. The perianth is entirely filled by the style in the bottom half of the tube. The flowers have a strong acrid-spicy, violet-like scent. Babiana grandiflora is native to the coastal plains of Namaqualand, South Africa. The continued survival of this species is considered being of least-concern.
Babiana grandiflora occurs in the Northern and Western Cape provinces of South Africa on the coastal plains of Namaqualand between Koekenaap, near to the mouth of the Olifants River, and Soutfontein just south of Wallekraal. It can be found in fynbos and succulent karoo, where it grows on sandy flats, usually in deep sand.
Baboon Root · Babiana angustifolia · Brandvlei Bobbejaantjie · Violet Scent Bobbejaantjie · Pakhuis Bobbejaantjie · Mini Rat Tail Bobbejaantjie · Nama Bobbejaantjie · Pink Bobejaantjie · Needleleaf Bobbejaantjie · Limestone Bobbejaantjie · Cederberg Bobbejaantjie · Cinnamon Bobbejaantjie
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Babiana grandiflora by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
