Cyanella lutea subsp. rosea

Cyanella lutea subsp. rosea is a pink-flowering subspecies of the otherwise yellow C. lutea; this geelraaptol is pink. The plant bears lanceolate leaves in a flat, ground-level rosette, growing from a deep-seated, edible corm.

The distribution is coastal in the Eastern Cape and inland widely in the Karoo to the Kalahari and Namaqualand of the Northern Cape. There is some spill over in arid parts of the Western Cape, the Free State and North West, extending to southern Namibia. The photo was taken near Kimberley.

The habitat is clayey, loamy, sandy and limestone flats where the plants grow in Nama Karoo, succulent Karoo, Albany thicket and desert in grassland and dry shrubland. The plants are often sheltered under bigger plants. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; Moriarty, 1997; Gledhill, 1981; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).