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Babiana nana
Late Bobbejaantjie is a small geophyte, 6 to 15 cm tall, from the Cape of South Africa, grown from a corm-like underground stem. It is a rare, endangered species best left in the wild or grown only from responsibly sourced stock, so cultivation is a niche choice.
Babiana nana is a species of geophyte of 6–15 cm (2.4–5.9 in) high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It has leaves that consist of a sheath and a blade that are at an angle with each other. The leaf blades are oval to almost line-shaped and have a left and right surface, rather than an upper and lower surface. The leaf blades are moderately pleated and covered in dense, soft hairs. The inflorescence contains two to six blue to violet or pale pink flowers adorned with white markings on the lower lip, and with three stamens crowding under the upper lip. Flowering occurs from late August to the end of September. The flowers emit a smell reminiscent of roses or violets.
Babiana nana subsp. nana can be found in an area bordering the west coast in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Here it used to occur between Saldanha on the Vredenburg Peninsula in the north to Milnerton in the south, but it is now extinct in the southern parts of its range. It grows on sandy plains and dunes including in the vegetation types Atlantis Sand Fynbos, Cape Flats Dune Strandveld, Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, Hopefield Sand Fynbos, Langebaan Dune Strandveld, Saldanha Flats Strandveld, Saldanha Granite Strandveld, and Swartland Granite Renosterveld. It is considered an endangered taxon, because its populations are severely fragmented, and this subspecies is declining primarily due to alien plant invasion and coastal development, with a range of at most 1,400 km2 (540 mi2). Babiana nana subsp. maculata occurs along the south coast of the Western Cape province between the Cape Peninsula in the west to Mossel Bay in the east. Here it grows in dunes and on sandy coastal flats.
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 nana 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.
