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Babiana villosa
Babiana villosa is a species of geophyte of 10–20 cm (3.9–7.9 in) high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It has mauve-pink, purple or scarlet star-symmetrical wide chalice-shaped flowers with narrow tube, large, blackish or dark purple anthers, and velvety hairy, lance-shaped, laterally compressed leaves, set in a fan. Flowers occur during August and September. It grows between Malmesbury and Wellington in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is commonly called red babiana in English and rooibobbejaantjie in Afrikaans.
B. villosa can be found between Malmesbury and Wellington in the Western Cape province of South Africa. This species grows in on lower mountain slopes, hills and flats in fertile, stony clay in Breede Shale Renosterveld vegetation, often together with blue-flowered forms of Lachenalia unifolia, the pink orchid Satyrium erectum and Geissorhiza erosa with red flowers. The corms of B. villosa are difficult to gather as they are often found wedging in heavy clay soils between stones that become rock hard in summer, and so the corms are protected against baboons, porcupines, mole rats, that would gladly eat them. The corms start growing in autumn and through the winter months to flower during spring. It is still locally common in renosterveld remnants, in particular in the Tulbagh Valley. The species is pollinated by the monkey beetles Anisonyx ursus and A. ditus around Malmesbury, and Peritrichia rufotibialis and Lepithrix ornatella in the Tulbagh Valley. It has a range of nearly 2,000 km2 (770 mi2) and is known from sixteen locations.
B. villosa is cultivated by specialist bulb growers as a rock garden plant or in containers.
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 villosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
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.
