Babiana nana is a species of geophyte of 6–15 cm (2.4–5.9 in) high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae.
The leaf blade is densely softly hairy, laterally compressed, meaning it has a right and left, rather than an upper and lower side, and its surface is not flat but slightly to moderately pleated, meaning that the surfaces of the leaf abruptly and repetitively change angle at the location of one of the veins.
The leaf blades are not coiled, their margins do not undulate, and their tips are pointy to blunt but do not end in several irregular teeth.
The perianth is violet to blue or rarely pale pink, with the lower lateral tepals carrying white or cream-coloured markings.
[1] In 1801, the English botanist, botanical artist and engraver Henry Cranke Andrews described Gladiolus nanus.
In 2007, Peter Goldblatt and John Charles Manning considered B. nana var.
nana can be found in an area bordering the west coast in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Here it used to occur between Saldanha on the Vredenburg Peninsula in the north to Milnerton in the south, but it is now extinct in the southern parts of its range.
It is considered an endangered taxon, because its populations are severely fragmented, and this subspecies is declining primarily due to alien plant invasion and coastal development, with a range of at most 1,400 km2 (540 sq mi).
It is a near-threatened taxon because its current range is severely fragmented and its habitat is lost on an extensive scale due to competition by alien plants, conversion for agriculture and coastal urban development, but its range is much larger at 36,000 km2 (14,000 sq mi).