Rhodohypoxis baurii

Rhodohypoxis baurii is a perennial growing from a small vertical corm to heights around 15 cm.

The white, pink or pinkish red flowers grow solitary or in pairs. The scapes emerge from leaf axils. The tepals form short tubes at the flower bases and the flower throats are initially closed. The six spreading tepals of the open flower are longer than the perianth or flower tube. The six stamens are of two lengths, included in the tube. The inferior ovary is three-loculed and pyramidal, the stigma three-lobed. Flowering happens from before midspring to after midsummer.

The species distribution is inland in the east of South Africa, the north of the Eastern Cape, the west of KwaZulu-Natal, the far east of the Free State and the east of Mpumalanga. It also grows in some neighbouring countries including Lesotho and eSwatini. The photo was taken near the Sani Pass.

The habitat is moist, montane grassland, often on sheetrock. The habitat populations of all three recognised varieties of the species are deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

This plant hybridises among the varieties of its own species, as well as with some Hypoxis species, another genus of the same family, the Hypoxidaceae or stargrass.

The species is cultivated in Europe and Japan (Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).