''Cyanixia'' is a genus of plants in the

Iridaceae Iridaceae is a family of plants in order Asparagales, taking its name from the irises, meaning rainbow, referring to its many colours. There are 66 accepted genera with a total of c. 2244 species worldwide (Christenhusz & Byng 2016). It include ...

, first described in 2003. It contains only one known species, ''Cyanixia socotrana'', a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

and bulbous plant species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the Island of

Socotra Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’s ...

in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, part of the

Republic of Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and sha ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>Goldblatt, J. C. Manning, J. Davies, V. Savolainen and S. Rezai (2003)
''Cyanixia'', a new genus for the Socotran endemic ''Babiana socotrana'' (Iridaceae–Crocoideae).
Edinburgh Journal of Botany, 60, pp 517-532 The genus name is derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

words ''Ixia'', referring to the radially symmetrical flowers in the genus of that name, as well as ''cyanos'', meaning "blue". The species was for many years considered a member of the South African genus ''

Babiana ''Babiana'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book'', 1995:606–607 is a genus of geophytes in the family Iridaceae with 93 recognized species . The leaves consist of a stalk and a blade that are at an angle to each other. The leaf blades are entire, la ...

'' but recognized as a distinct genus in 2003.

References

Monotypic Iridaceae genera Iridaceae Endemic flora of Socotra Least concern plants {{Iridaceae-stub