Lachenalia karooica

Lachenalia karooica is a deciduous, bulbous perennial reaching heights from 4 cm to 22 cm when flowering.

One or two lanceolate leaves are grown, usually angled up and curving out with pointed tips. They are said to sometimes be flat on the ground. The dull green blades are channelled above, sometimes with scattered maroon spots on their upper surfaces.

The turquoise green flowers with dark brown or dull maroon tip parts are bell-shaped. They grow sessile in an erect spike that may have a purple-spotted or red brown stem. The pale brown anthers and part of the white filaments are exserted from open flowers.

Flowering of these winter growing plants happens in winter and early spring.

The species is distributed in the south and west of South Africa, in the south of the Northern Cape, the Western Cape from Worcester to the Karoo and Little Karoo, into the Eastern Cape and the southwest of the Free State. The photo was taken on Minwater farm near Oudtshoorn.

The habitat is arid fynbos, succulent Karoo and Nama Karoo on rocky outcrops in loam and clay soils. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).