Romulea tortuosa is a herbaceous perennial geophyte in the family Iridaceae native to South Africa.

[1][2] Romulea tortuosa is a very low perennial plant of 3–6 cm (1.2–2.4 in) high, that survives the dry southern summer through storage of its resources in an oval corm, which is clad in a brown, rigid tunic.

Its three to four spreading, firm, awl-shaped basal leaves are coiled like corkscrews, 3¾–5 cm (1½–2 in) long, about 1 mm (0.04 in) in diameter, with three veins.

Each flower is subtended by two green lanceolate non-coiling bracts of 1¼ cm (½ in) long.

Friedrich Wilhelm Klatt described another specimen in 1882, calling it Romulea tridentifera, but this name is now considered to be synonymous to R.