Roella dregeana var. dregeana

Roella dregeana var. dregeana, commonly known as the bell flower, is an erect shrublet. Its ascending branches reach heights around 30 cm.

The narrow, sharply pointed leaves grow wiry marginal hair-prickles as they mature. Tufts of small, initially hairless leaves grow from leaf axils.

One to a few bell-shaped flowers grow at stem-tips, shaped for easy insect access. The bracts below the calyx are leaf-like with wiry fringes along the margins. The five petals are blue in varying shades, sometimes with white in the cups. The bluntly pointed petals spread slightly ascending to 15 mm in diameter. There is a two-lobed, blue and white tip on the style, the ovary hairy and the shorter stamens spreading around it.

Flowering happens from before midsummer to early autumn.

The distribution is in the southwest of the Western Cape near the south coast, from the Cape Peninsula to Worcester and Swellendam. The photo was taken near Hermanus.

The habitat is sandstone fynbos slopes. The habitat population of the variety is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Marais, (Ed.), 2017; iNaturalist; https://www.fernkloof.org.za; http://redlist.sanbi.org).