Babiana patula
N. E. Br.
IridaceaeRoots
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(c) Petra Broddle, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Petra Broddle
(c) Petra Broddle, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Petra Broddle
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(c) Gawie Malan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Gawie Malan
(c) Gawie Malan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Gawie Malan
What to Eat
Edible parts: Corm, Bulb, Root
The corm or bulb is eaten as a snack.
Where to Find It
It is a Mediterranean climate plant.
Africa, South Africa*, Southern Africa,
Countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
How to Identify
A small creeping herb. It grows 2-8 cm long. The leaves are sword shaped and hairy. The flowers are blue to purple with yellow lines.
Wikipedia
Source ↗Babiana patula is a perennial flowering plant and geophyte belonging to the genus Babiana and is part of the fynbos. The species is endemic to the Western Cape and occurs from Tulbagh to Albertinia. The plant has a range of 20 000 km2 and has lost 60% of its habitat to development, crop cultivation and invasive plants over 80 years.
References (3)
- De Vynk, J. C., et al, 2016, Indigenous edible plant use by contemporary Khoe-San descendants of South Africa's Cape South Coast. South African Journal of Botany. 102 (2016) 60-69
- 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
