Daleen Roodt

Babiana pygmaea
2026
Watercolour on vellum
300 mm x 420 mm
James & Shirley Sherwood Collection, SUBG

In contrast to what its name suggests, Babiana pygmaea (meaning “dwarf”) has the largest flowers in this genus.

This endangered species only grows in a small strip of seasonally damp soils in the critically endangered vegetation type of Swartland Granite Renosterveld. It has a very limited distribution, threatened by grazing, agricultural practices and invasive plants. My specimen is from the special ex situ collection of rare and endangered plants cared for at the in Stellenbosch.

There was a surreal joy that permeated my experience of painting this beautiful plant. The painting process preserves the species’ portrait, in a way “eternalising” its existence as it is captured on the archival vellum surface. The artwork celebrates the fragility and timeless ethereal, almost pearly appearance of the flowers… slowly applying the tiniest little brush strokes of paint for many hours and days that provided in return a rewarding fulfilment of spending time in awe and wonder, time-hours that became space and dimension void of man-made anything.

As I was working, a single little honeybee visited the flowers, getting completely dusted in white pollen grains, fulfilling her essential role of pollination.

“The whole earth is filled with awe at Your wonders…” (Ps 65:8)

Currently on exhibition at Stellenbosch University Botanical Gardens.