Disa graminifolia

Disa graminifolia, the blue disa or in Afrikaans the bloumoederkappie (mother’s blue bonnet), is a slender-stemmed, tuberous perennial found on the higher sandstone slopes of the south-western Cape. It often grows in fynbos, usually in full sun on densely vegetated slopes.

The main pollinator of the blue disa is the carpenter bee, an insect apparently not strong on flower species identification! The plant mimics other nectar-bearing blue flowering species found in the same or partly overlapping distributions and benefits from the pollinator’s mistaken expectation of finding nectar in these flowers (Bean and Johns, 2005; Manning, 2007; iSpot).