Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden, South Africa

Common name: Witsterretjie

Family: Hypoxidaceae

Synonym: Spiloxene alba

Distribution: Koue Bokkeveld to Hermanus and Breede River Valley

Habitat: Marshes and and seasonally damp sites in renosterveld soils

National red list: Vulnerable

Life form: Geophyte (bulb, corm or tuber - seasonally dormant)

Comments: A winter-flowering Cape geophyte which grows in seasonally moist heavy clay soils. It flowers quite early in the rainy season, before the majority of Cape bulbs have started flowering. The flowers sometimes have a faint sweet scent. Populations of this species has been severely fragmented due to urban expansion and crop cultivation within its range and consequently it is now classified as a Vulnerable species.