Romulea tabularis

Romulea tabularis, commonly the table froetang, is a deciduous perennial growing from an oblique corm in a woody tunic with a crescent-shaped basal ridge. One or two cylindrical, green leaves grow from the base, taller than the flower.

The star-shaped flowers are blue, pale blue or white on the tepal lobes, golden yellow in the cup. The outer tepals are blotched irregularly. The yellow anthers cohere in the centre. Flowering happens from before midwinter to after midspring.

The species is distributed in the west of the Western Cape from Bredasdorp and the Cape Peninsula to Namaqualand. The photo was taken in the Tinie Versfeld Wildflower Reserve late in August.

The habitat is flats of seasonally damp, clayey, sandy or limestone soils, often near the coast. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2007; Manning and Goldblatt, 1997; iNaturalist; www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).