1310.000 Babiana Ker Gawl. ex Sims

Perennial herbs, dying back each year, with corms, these with fibrous tunics. Stem largely underground. Foliage leaves usually plicate. Inflorescence a spike. Flowers zygomorphic, usually pale to dark blue to mauve, tepals united into a perianth tube, subequal or forming two lips, the upper tepal much enlarged. Fruit a capsule.

Worldwide: c. 63 species, in southern Africa, especially the Cape; 1 in Socotra