Trachyandra tortilis

Trachyandra tortilis is a rhizomatous plant reaching 10 cm to 25 cm in height. 

This is one of the bulbous species of this dry area with strap-like leaves that tend to become spirally twisted, tightly coiled or crisped. The specimen in the photo displays only limited signs of the crinkly tendency: zigzag in places, straight and smooth elsewhere. Some specimens show much more of this leaf shape. Leaf margins may have hard, cartilaginous ridges.

The species distribution is in the west of the Northern Cape from the Richtersveld through the rest of Namaqualand into the Western Cape as far as Hopefield and Saldanha.

The habitat is deep sandy, quartzitic or silty soils, among stones or in river beds. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (iNaturalist; www.flickr.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).