Eriospermum aequilibre

This leaf may be that of Eriospermum aequilibre although it is a little short and maybe too wide for its length. E. aequilibre is a tuberous perennial that grows a single, erect leaf on a long slender stalk to 50 cm in height. The tuber is irregularly shaped, covered in a pale brown tunic.

The erect, spear-shaped leaf can be up to 18 cm long and 2 cm wide, seen in winter. The dull, blue grey blade is hairless, sometimes visibly longitudinally veined. The margins may be unevenly wavy.

The inflorescence is a narrow, many-flowered raceme, the stem green and thickish. The short-stalked, dull yellow or greenish flowers, sometimes with some brown, have six spreading to recurving tepals. Flowering happens in autumn. The fruits share the white woolly appendages common in the genus.

The species distribution is in the east of the Western Cape, the eastern Little Karoo from Oudtshoorn to Uniondale. The photo was taken in the foothills of the Gamka Mountain.

The habitat is scrub in gravelly soil and renosterveld in shale or limestone. The species is considered vulnerable in its habitat early in the twenty first century, due to wheat farming and illegal plant collection (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).