Chironia is a beautiful African genus in the gentian family, Gentianaceae, made up of annual and perennial herbs or sub-shrubs prized for their clear, luminous flowers and often neat, fine-textured growth. Kew records the genus as native to Tropical and Southern Africa, while SANBI describes it as containing about 30 species spread through tropical and subtropical Africa and Madagascar, with 16 species occurring in southern Africa. The name Chironia comes from Chiron of Greek mythology, the wise centaur associated with healing and herbal knowledge, which gives the genus an especially evocative botanical backstory. In the garden, many species are admired for their open, starry flowers and long flowering display, and in nature they occur in a surprisingly wide range of habitats, from damp marshy ground and stream edges to sandy flats and other seasonally moist sites.

Chironia tetragona is a South African endemic species found in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape Provinces. It grows into a sticky, willowy annual or biennial up to 60cm tall. The leaves are linear to oblong; flowers sticky, pink; corolla tube 6-10mm long, thickened in throat, calyx lobed to halfway; the fruits are pointed. It is normally found growing in coastal sands and limestone and flowering during summer from October to January.