Satyrium ligulatum

Satyrium ligulatum is a tuberous herb growing an erect annual flower stem and some leaves. The plant grows in winter, flowers in spring. The stem does not branch and has leaves along its length, reducing in size quickly after the first few, to just the small, reflexed, pointed bracts seen here below each flower.

S. ligulatum occurs widely in the southern parts of South Africa and Lesotho. While this plant was encountered in the Drakensberg montane grasses, one also finds them for instance in the Gifberg of the Western Cape among arid fynbos, the Karoo scrub and the Free State grasslands (iSpot; JSTOR; www.pacificbulbsociety.org).