Babiana hypogaea Burch.
Baboon-root, Buff Bushmanland Bobbejaantjie, Bushmanland Bobbejaantjie, Dwarf Babiana
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Babiana hypogaea is a perennial plant of about 5–8 cm (2.0–3.1 in) high that annually forms leaves and flowers from an underground corm that is assigned to the iris family. It has pale greenish yellow, buff or rarely white, mirro-symmetrical flowers and line- to sickle-shaped, slightly pleated, thinly hairy or hairless leaves that are held horizontally or inclined, that grows in the summer rainfall areas of southeastern Namibia and central and northern central South Africa. Flowers may be found between June and September and sometimes between December and May. It is called Bobbejaankalkoentjie, Bobbejaanuintjie or Ertappeluintjie in Afrikaans.
Text from Wikipedia, “Babiana hypogaea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Babiana
Babiana is a genus of geophytes in the family Iridaceae with 93 recognized species as of March 2022. The leaves consist of a stalk and a blade that are at an angle to each other. The leaf blades are entire, laterally flattened and pleated, and often hairy. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Babiana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Antholyza hypogaea (Burch.) Klatt; Babiana falcata G.J.Lewis; Babiana flavida G.J.Lewis.
Cultivation
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Babiana, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, southern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (260 mm of 364 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.7 °C against a yearly mean of 17.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 364 mm a year, wettest February at 66 mm, driest July at 4 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
364 mm a year at the habitat, 260 mm of it November to March. Wettest month February at 66 mm, driest July at 4 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 92 mm to 626 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 52 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 52 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 58).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor -2.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -2.3 °C, the absolute minimum -5.6 °C, about 14 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 2.2 °C to 5.3 °C), warmest day 30.9 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 44 to 51% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 31 / 27–33 | 30 / 27–32 | 28 / 25–30 | 24 / 22–26 | 21 / 19–23 | 18 / 16–19 | 18 / 16–19 | 20 / 19–22 | 24 / 22–26 | 27 / 25–28 | 28 / 26–30 | 30 / 27–32 |
| Night °C | 17 / 15–18 | 17 / 15–18 | 15 / 13–16 | 12 / 10–13 | 8 / 6–9 | 4 / 3–6 | 4 / 2–5 | 6 / 4–7 | 9 / 7–11 | 12 / 10–13 | 14 / 11–15 | 16 / 13–17 |
| Rain mm | 57 / 11–114 | 66 / 17–97 | 59 / 17–80 | 33 / 13–40 | 13 / 5–17 | 8 / 3–12 | 4 / 2–10 | 7 / 3–15 | 12 / 3–19 | 27 / 4–62 | 35 / 5–80 | 43 / 4–105 |
| DLI | 50 / 44–56 | 45 / 41–51 | 39 / 36–44 | 32 / 31–37 | 27 / 25–30 | 24 / 22–27 | 25 / 24–28 | 31 / 29–35 | 39 / 38–43 | 45 / 42–50 | 50 / 43–55 | 52 / 45–58 |
| RH % | 48 / 42–57 | 50 / 44–57 | 51 / 44–56 | 50 / 44–54 | 49 / 41–52 | 49 / 41–52 | 47 / 41–50 | 45 / 39–49 | 44 / 38–48 | 45 / 40–51 | 45 / 41–54 | 46 / 41–56 |
Each figure is the median across the 66 grid cells holding the 75 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2362:4077 (-28.125, 23.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 66 distinct grid cells holding the 75 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2362:4077 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -28.00_23.750, lapse-corrected -59 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1422 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Antoinette Eyssell Knox, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5).
Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Babiana hypogaea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Nananthus aloides Aizoaceae
Antimima lawsonii Kimberly Matfig
Albuca prasina Asparagaceae Albuca dyeri Asparagaceae Lapeirousia kalahariensis Iridaceae Nananthus pallens AizoaceaeOther Babiana 92 in the reference
Babiana ambigua Baboon-root
Babiana angustifolia Iridaceae Babiana arenicola Brandvlei Bobbejaantjie
Babiana attenuata Violet-scent Bobbejaantjie
Babiana auriculata Pakhuis Bobbejaantjie
Babiana avicularis Mini Rat-tail Bobbejaantjie
Babiana bainesii Nama Bobbejaantjie
Babiana blanda Pink Bobejaantjie
Babiana brachystachys Needleleaf Bobbejaantjie
Babiana carminea Limestone Bobbejaantjie
Babiana cedarbergensis Cederberg bobbejaantjie Babiana cinnamomea Cinnamon Bobbejaantjie all 93 ›History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.