South African botanists have found evidence that the largest Cape geophyte genus, Oxalis, has developed a unique association with the bacterial genus Bacillus, that help it to fix nitrogen from the air and to perform extraordinary feats of germination. Furthermore, they demonstrate that the Bacillus bacteria are so integrated into this symbiotic relationship that they are even inherited from mother plant to seed. This is the first report of such a system of vertical inheritance of endophyte bacteria for geophytes.