Babiana nana
(Andrews) Spreng.
Klip uintjie
(c) mikemittelmeyer, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) Gareth Williams, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Gareth Williams
What to Eat
Edible parts: Bulb, Corm, Root
The bulb and corm are eaten as snacks and can also be cooked as vegetables.
Where to Find It
It is a subtropical plant. It grows in rocky or stony locations.
Africa, South Africa*, Southern Africa,
How to Identify
A subtropical herb of the Iridaceae family with bulbs and corms, growing in rocky or stony locations.
Wikipedia
Source ↗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.
Notes
Possibly only eaten by baboons.
Names & Synonyms
References (2)
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 66
- Welcome, A. K. & Van Wyk, B.-E., 2019, An inventory and analysis of the food plants of southern Africa. South African Journal of Botany 122 (2019) 136–179
