Gladiolus flowering

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Mon, 06 Aug 2012 18:04:59 PDT
The Gladiolus book has a key for the former Homoglossums. I spoke to 
Dee Snijman at one of the IBSA Symposiums thanking her for the keys 
and she seemed amazed. "Do you use the keys she said?" I thought to 
myself that I try, but not always with confidence. Not including 
Namaqualand makes it a bit dicey, but here we go. This muddies the 
waters a bit.

The upper lateral tepals are about as long to slightly longer than 
the dorsal: leaf blades oblong to oval in cross section, the margins 
and midribs thickened; corm tunics hard and more or less woody in 
texture, decaying into vertical segments from below (G. watsonius, G. 
teretifolius )

The upper lateral tepals somewhat shorter to less than half as long 
as the dorsal; leaf blades x-shaped in cross section, the margins and 
the edges of the midribs thickened; corm tunics cartilaginous to 
fairly soft in texture, decaying with age into fine vertical fibers 
(Quite a few including G. quadrangularis, G. priorii)

So the corms could be helpful too. I think the upper tepals in your 
photos look about as long as the dorsal.
Between the two:
Upper and lower lateral tepals lanceolate, more than twice as long as 
wide; blade of the lowermost leaf linear (oblong in cross section, 
(1.5-)3-5 mm at the widest = G. watsonius

Upper and lower lateral tepals ovate, as much as twice as long as 
wide; blade of the lowermost leaf oval in cross section, 1-2 mm at 
the widest = G. teretifolius

I hope this helps.

Mary Sue




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