Babiana

BABIANA (bab-i-ay’-nah). Baboon-root. The botanical name comes from a Dutch word for baboons, which eat the bulbs. A genus of low-growing South African plants of the Iris Family with sword-shaped, hairy leaves and a loose spike-like cluster of showy red or purplish flowers in early spring. Grown from seeds or, more often, corms, they succeed in very sandy soil. Being tender they are grown in the North only indoors or in protected cold-frames ; plant 3 to 5 corms in 4 in. pot. In the South plants can remain outdoors untouched, but are better replanted every other year. The varieties obtainable (usually in mixtures) are probably all of the species Babiana stricta, 1 ft. or less high, with red or purple to bluish and yellow flowers.

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