R.B. Faden (1995) Commelinaceae in Flora of Somalia 4: 79-94
Plants perennial herbs; roots thin, fibrous. Shoots with small to large sterile rosettes at the base; rosette leaves lanceolate obland, to 15 cm long and 1.5 cm wide, densely pilose; flowering shoots to 30 cm long, with thick bases covered by overlapping sheaths and clearly perennial, flowering portion of shoot to 17 cm long; cauline leaves distichous, sheaths about 5 mm long, pilose; blades oblong to lanceolate-ovate, 15-24 cm long. 6-10 mm wide, gradually becoming smaller and more reflexed distally, margins ciliate, surfaces pilose or upper surfaces glabrous/ Inflorescences sessile, solitaryin the axils of the uppermost 3-7 leaves; racteoles herbaceous, asymmetric, 7-9 mm long, ciliate. Flowers about 1 cm in diamter; sepals in fruit oblanceolate, about 8 mm long, pilose, especially distally; corollas pale violet; filaments beareded distally, with fusiform swellings below the anthers; anthers oblong; styles about equal to the stamens in length, colour, and form, glabrous. Capsules about 4 mm long, glabrous except for an apical tuft of hairs; seeds ellipsoid, 1.5-2 mm long, the seed coat brown with small, shallow depressions.
Cyanotis somaliensis grows under shrubs among rocjs or in Acacia-Euphorbia abyssinica open woodlands on gneiss mountain slopes with scrub at 915-1770 m. It is know from region N1 of the flora of Somalia. There are some berysimilar species of Cyanotis that may prove to be identical on further study. Plants being grown in cultivation under the name Cyanotis somaliensis may belong to a different species. They differ in havin indeterminate growth and no basal rosette.