Romulea biflora (Bég.) M.P. de Vos

Manning, John C. & Goldblatt, Peter, 2001, the Arabian Peninsula and Socotra including new species, biological notes, and a new infrageneric classification, Adansonia (3) 23 (1), pp. 59-108 : 78

13. Romulea biflora (Bég.) M.P. de Vos

J. S. African Bot., Suppl. 9: 75 (1972); Fl. S. Africa 7(2), fasc. 2: 20 (1983). — Romulea ambigua var. biflora Bég., Malpighia 23: 80 (1909). — Type: Schlechter 8694, South Africa, Western Cape, Clanwilliam, Bidouwberg (holo-, G; iso-, B, BM, K!, GRA, PRE!, S) .

Plants 10-25 cm high, stem reaching 2-15 cm above ground; corm with a crescent-shaped basal ridge. Leaves 3-6, lower 2 basal, narrowly 4- grooved, c. 1 mm diam.; outer bracts with hardly visible membranous margins, inner bracts with wide colorless or brown-streaked membranous margins. Flowers pink to rose with purple blotches around the yellow cup, unscented, tepals elliptic, 18-35 mm long; filaments 5-7 mm long, anthers 5-8 mm long. Fruiting peduncles bent or suberect. Flowering: July-Sep.

Romulea biflora is one of the few species of series Ciliatae with the tepals marked with dark blotches and has pink flowers with a yellow cup surrounded by prominent dark reddish purple blotches. Plants typically grow on stony clay on lower mountain slopes and extend from the Gifberg-Matsikamma Range in the northern Western Cape Province southwards to Biedouw valley in the northern Cedarberg.