Koekemakranka: An Illustrative Guide to the Southern African Bulb Plant Genus Named Gethyllis

Discover the elusive botanical enigma that has puzzled collectors, botanists, and field researchers for centuries.

Koekemakranka is a ground-breaking monograph on the Southern African genus Gethyllis – a little-known yet culturally rich group of bulbous plants famed for their aromatic fruits, curious life cycles, and almost mythical status among plant lovers. Known colloquially as Koekemakranka, these rare plants defy easy classification and have long evaded proper scientific documentation – until now.

Drawing on over a decade of fieldwork, genetic observation, and ecological mapping, Frederick de Jager unveils the most comprehensive visual and botanical guide to Gethyllis ever published. This landmark volume features meticulous descriptions, ecological insights, and never-before-seen full-colour photographs of species and subspecies – many of which are documented here for the first time.

From the quartz outcrops of the Knersvlakte to the sands of the Sandveld, Koekemakranka offers an intimate, richly detailed portrait of a genus that is as mysterious as it is beautiful. Whether you are a botanist, collector, or lover of indigenous flora, this is an essential addition to your library – one that pieces together the puzzle of Gethyllis with scientific rigour and poetic clarity.

Koekemakranka is a one-and-only botanical rarity twice over.

It is the only bulb flower to produce a delicious fruit from below ground, high in anti-oxidants and -carcinogens. And, it is the only bulb-flower to be active in four different seasons – leafing in a rainy, African cape winter, budding in spring, flowering in a dry mid-summer, and fruiting in autumn. 

Pronounced most authentically with the clicks of San people’s language, [click]oe-[click]e-ma-[click]an-[click]a possibly derives etymologically from ‘koe’ denoting ‘human’ and ‘kranka’ connoting craziness. 

There are many unique botanical curiosities to this bulb plant that might infer ‘crazy human’. For instance, almost all of the 30-odd species have long-haired or lipped sheaths that encase a cluster of curled leaves. In miniature, a little crazy human being with a curly top. 

It is because of this provocative appearance and its phallic fruit that early colonialists speculated about its potential as an aphrodisiac – whilst at the same time, certainly, a source of nutrition for the Khoi [‘koe’] San of Southern Africa.

With morphological echoes of carnivorous Venus flytraps and pitcher plants; with peculiar evolutionary adaptations to collect fog; and with a curious history of being used, traditionally, as an aphrodisiac, Koekemakranka has long since been in need of scientific clarity, far beyond the suggestion of being rich in anti-oxidants and anti-carcinogens. This publication points a way forward by beckoning formal testing to feast upon this most comprehensive, plate-by-plate, illustrative and photographic approach which records Gethyllis.