Romulea flava

Romulea flava, commonly the greenbract froetang, is a cormous perennial reaching heights from 10 cm to 50 cm in its annually deciduous above-ground parts. The corm is obliquely flattened and the stem usually branches. There are one or two thread-like basal leaves and few shorter, broader stem-clasping ones.

The solitary stem-tip flowers are subtended by bracts, the inner one papery or membranous and brown-streaked. The six tepals form a yellow basal cup that is sometimes three to five-lined inside. The acutely tipped tepal upper parts spread, coloured white or yellow, rarely blue or pink. Flowering happens in winter and early spring, the flowers open on sunny afternoons. They last fairly long. The photo was taken in November.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape, slightly into the southwest of the Northern Cape and the western coastal part of the Eastern Cape. The photo was taken in the Salmonsdam Nature Reserve southeast of Stanford.

The habitat is moist, clayey or sandy fynbos and renosterveld in the winter rainfall region. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).