Eucomis schijffii

Eucomis schijffii, commonly known as the miniature pineapple lily, is a small, bulbous perennial usually reaching only about 10 cm in height. The bulb is ovoid, the roots fleshy.

The broad or sometimes narrow leaves grow in a rosette of three to five, lying flat on the ground. The blades are bluish grey on top and dark red on their lower surfaces. The finely toothed margins are purple. There is a prominent, yellow green midrib. 

The sturdy flower stalk emerges from between the leaf bases in the centre. The top of the inflorescence is a dense crown or coma of triangular bracts with sagging tips giving the plant the pineapple appearance for which Eucomis plants are known. This crown is purple or green with at least purple margins or a soft suffusion of purple. The bracts tend to hide some of the flowers on its typically short, compact raceme. Flowers may be present in the raceme to near the ground or leaf level, the bare stalk maroon or speckled.  

The species distribution is in the far southwest of KwaZulu-Natal and the far north of the Eastern Cape, also in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho. 

The habitat is high elevation Drakensberg grassland, mostly rocky or basaltic gravel. The region receives summer rain, often in thunder storms and cold, dry winters during which the plant is dormant, the above-ground parts dying off. The ovoid bulb where the vitality and resources reside in underground rest, awaits the signs of higher temperatures and spring rain to sprout new leaves and a flower stalk bearing blooms by summer or early autumn. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

This plant does well in cultivation in the right garden setting with full sun, good drainage, summer rain and no winter watering (iNaturalist; iSpot; https://pza.sanbi.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).