Indigo

Babiana is a genus of bulbous plants native to South African. The name refers to the Dutch word 'baviaan' (=baboon), since those monkeys use to consume the edible corms.

There are maybe 80 different species of Babiana but if one orders a couple of corms from a bulb nursery one will often get a not very distinctive mixture of varieties only (mostly of Babiana stricta). This is a shame since many species are very beautiful, small growing iris-like plants with long-lasting, fragrant flowers in almost every color - white, red, yellow, and all shades of blue. It can be an amazing job to sow some seeds of Babiana species and then select good types from the seedlings, such as this fine variety of Babiana angustifolia with indigo blue flowers displaying a tiny red 'butterfly' on each of the lower petals.

Babianas are quite easy to grow but not hardy in countries with longer periods of frost in winter. So they have to be lifted in fall and stored in a dry room. And hm, if one has no storage room one can simply eat the corms as a kind of exotic meal.