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Cyanotis angusta

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Photo by Marco Schmidt, Africanplants.senckenberg.de.
I am puzzled by the shape of the roots: It sure look like a bulb, where the rest of the family have rizomes! ID might be way off on this page! Then again, all sources agree, it seems.


Exposed plant by Marco Schmidt, Africanplants.senckenberg.de.


The bulb by Marco Schmidt, Africanplants.senckenberg.de.


The flower by Ralph Mangelsdorff, Africanplants.senckenberg.de.

Author: 

Charles Baron Clarke, 1881

Family: 

COMMELINACEAE

Origin: 

Benin, Burkina, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo

Soil: 

Mix

Water: 

Medium

Sun: 

Medium

Thickness: 

2-5 Centimetres

Height: 

8 Centimetres

Flower: 

Blue - Purple

Propagate: 

Seeds

Names: 

-

Synonyms: 

Tonningia angusta, Kuntze, 1891.
Cyanotis bulbifera, Hutch. 1939.

This member of the Commelinaceae family was given this name by Charles Baron Clarke in 1881. It is found in Benin, Burkina, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo, growing in a well drained soil with some water and some sun. The caudex can grow from two to five centimetres in diameter, the entire plant to eight centimetres in height. The flowers are blue or purple.

It seems like Kuntze's idea with Tonningia didn't catch.

The genera name from Latin; cyaneus; 'blue'. The species name means 'narrow' for the leaves.