Geissorhiza is a large genus of around 84 perennial species, of small to medium corm bearing plants in the Iridaceae family found in the winter rainfall region of the south and west coasts of southern Africa. Many of them make very handsome container plants and benefit from extra water during growth. The name Geissorhiza is derived from the Greek words geisson and rhiza which mean tile and root respectively. This is in reference to a tunic which covers the corms like a roof tile. The bulb-like structure is used as a storage organ during the dormant period. It is closely related to the genus Hesperantha, the main difference being that most Hesperantha are night bloomers.

Geissorhiza demissa, is a South African endemic species found from the Kamiesberg in central Namaqualand, the plateau of the Gifberg near Vanrhynsdorp and from the Koue Bokkeveld mountains in the Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces. It is local and evidently uncommon in seasonally damp places in the shelter of granite boulders in the Kamiesberg or among fynbos sandstone rocks in the Western Cape mountains.