Rod and Rachel Saunders are finding a lot of variation in species as they search for Gladiolus in the wild for their book. Some populations don't quite fit the descriptions in some of the Goldblatt -Manning books. There is great diversity in the wild which is why we have added multiple photos of many of the species to the wiki to illustrate this. I remember it being a bit hopeless to distinguish between Gladiolus venustus and G. scullyi. Some people were identifying plants by virtue of where they were growing, not how they looked. When I first looked at Terry's photos it reminded me of Gladiolus quadrangularis even though the plants I grew from Silverhill Seed didn't fit the description of that species. The key for that species in the Encyclopedia is: Tepals lanceolate, the upper laterals more than twice as long as wide; flowers with the lower tepals uniformly red or orange toward the base. It can bloom between August and October. But the spike usually has more flowers than Terry's plants, 4 to 10. Leaves linear, the midrib strongly raised, x shaped in cross section, 2.4-4mm wide. Corm globose with tunics of firm, wiry fibers. Another to consider is Gladiolus huttonii or one of those hybrids of it. It blooms at the right time. Leaves are the same description as G. quadrangularis, but 2-3 mm. wide. Corm is ovoid with tunics of coarse fibers. Flowers are in a 3 to 8 flowered spike, red to orange with the lower tepals sometimes yellow. The flowers are large, with the dorsal tepal 25-60 cm. Terry could always call this Gladiolus sp., Homoglossum section. Mary Sue