Babiana

Babiana Ker Gawler is a genus of flowering plants in the Family Iridaceae comprised of about 80 species. Most of these species (about 49) are found in the southwestern Cape of Africa, with the remainder distributed in Namaqualand and Northern Cape Province. The native range of the genus is from southern Namibia to the Eastern Cape to southern Zimbabwe, with one species from Socotra off the coast of Somalia (although this may not be a species of Babiana).


Species
Babiana ringens (The Rat's tail ) is a flowering plant native to South Africa. The foliage is long and erect with a sterile main stalk. The plant bears bright red, tubular flowers on side branches close to the ground. It grows in sandy soil.
The main stalk acts as a perch for birds, enabling birds to land within reach of the plant's flowers. The bird that seems to be a pollinator of the plant is the malachite sunbird (Nectarina famosa). The male sunbird is twice as likely to perch on the stalk as the female and, on average, spends four times longer on a perch. The stalk does seem to play a role in pollination as plants without a stalk produced only half as many seeds as plants with a stalk intact.

Babiana ambigua - Common Baboon-root

Babiana nana - Sandflat Baboon-root

Babiana tubulosa - White Baboon-root

Babiana pygmaea - Yellow Baboon-root

Babiana angustifolia

Babiana curviscapa

Babiana truncata

Babiana villosa

Babiana disticha

Babiana fourcadei

Babiana rubrocyanea

Babiana framesii

Babiana patersoniae

Babiana patula

Babiana flabellifolia

Babiana plicata

Babiana purpurea

Babiana vanzylieae

Imperata

Imperata is a small genus of grasses known as satintails. Satintail grass species are perennial rhizomatous grasses native to the tropics and warm temperate regions worldwide. They bear solid, erect stems and silky inflorescences. The best... more >>>

Lamarckia aurea - Goldentop Grass

Goldentop Grass (Lamarckia aurea) is a species of grass, the sole species in the genus Lamarckia. It is an annual plant, typically 30-45 centimetres in height, with clusters of golden flowers in a panicle 5-8 cm long and 2-2.5 cm broad.more >>>

Nomocharis

Nomocharis is a genus of the family Liliaceae. It consists of about 7 species native to montane regions of western China, Myanmar, and northern India.

They are similar to Lilium, with one of the more obvious differences being the... more >>>

Berberis - barberry

Berberis (barberry, pepperidge bush) a genus of about 450-500 species of deciduous and evergreen shrubs from 1-5 m tall with thorny shoots, native to the temperate and subtropical regions of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South... more >>>

Galanthus - Snowdrop

The common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) is the best-known representative of a small genus of about 20 species in the family Amaryllidaceae that are among the first bulbs to bloom in spring.

All species of Galanthus have bulbs,... more >>>