Cyphia digitata

Cyphia digitata, the baroe or vlaktebaroe (plains baroe), is a geophytic twining perennial that achieves heights of 60 cm with the help of shrubby neighbours.

The species distribution is widespread from Namaqualand to the Eastern Cape. Its habitat is varied scrub on flats and lower slopes in loam or clay soils. There are two subspecies as well as some forms differentiated, all made likely by the sheer size of the large distribution with such varied climate.

It is obviously lush, growing comfortably in Fernkloof at Hermanus, less so in the Little Karoo where the photo was taken and much less in arid parts such as Namaqualand. Neither subspecies of C. digitata is considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; www.redlist.sanbi.org).