BabianaBabiana

Babiana (Iridaceae) comprises more than ninety species from southern Africa, with two centres of diversity in the south-western Cape and Namaqualand. The name comes from the Cape Dutch babiaan, baboon, after the animals that dig up and eat the corms. They are geophytes with deep-set corms in fibrous tunics and lance-shaped, strongly pleated, hairy leaves held in a fan. The spikes carry blue, violet, red or cream flowers, often fragrant and largely beetle-pollinated. Grow as winter-growing plants in full sun and very sharply drained compost, dry in summer.