Cyphia volubilis

Cyphia volubilis, commonly called the bergbaroe (mountain baroe) or aardboontjie (earth bean) in Afrikaans, is a delicate climber bearing white or purple flowers. The herbaceous perennial grows slender stems that twine up to 1 m in the bushes around them, emerging from a fleshy, underground tuber.

The picture shows the long, narrow corolla tubes and the small, dark, pointed sepal lobes of the calyces.

The species distribution ranges from Namaqualand in the Northern Cape southwards and eastwards along the coast, as well as inland along the Little Karoo to around Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth).

The habitat is dry fynbos and renosterveld where the plants grow in sandstone, loam and clay slopes. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

Namaqualand is home to several baroe species such as C. sylvatica and C. undulata that are (or were) important in the diets of indigenous people (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Manning, 2009; http://redlist.sanbi.org).