Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden, South Africa

Common name: Baroe / Barroe, Aardboontjie, Bergbaroe, Broes

Family: Lobeliaceae

Distribution: Clanwilliam to Cape Peninsula, Worcester to Swellendam

Habitat: Sandy flats and mountain slopes

National red list: Least Concern

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

Comments: Cyphia volubilis is extremely unusal in many respects. Although in the Lobelia family, it is a winter growing, summer dormant geophyte, surviving as an underground tuber over the dry summer season. The tuber is one of the few non-toxic, safely edible underground storage organs in fynbos, and would have been an important and valued food item for hunter-gatherer peoples. The aboveground parts are a delicate twining climber, which is in itself unusual in fynbos environments, often decorating restios and low growing shrubs. The actual flower is typical of the Lobeliaceae, with an bilaterally symmetrical petal pattern, although even here it is a little unique in being resupinate - i.e. the flower has rotated to an upside-down position compared to Lobelia, with 2 lobes below and 3 above.