Several species settle for these clear signal colors, often associated with bird pollination. This may result in very special flower shapes with long perianth tubes.
Though magenta is considered the basic red in printing color systems, we follow the common western color perception. Magenta colored Gladiolus can be found in the Purple Gladiolus index.
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Gladiolus meridionalis G.J.Lewis is found in the Southern Cape from the Overberg to Port Elizabeth (both winter and summer rainfall areas) and flowers from June to August. The distribution is discontinuous. Plants grow in stony sandstone soils in low fynbos on mountain slopes and flats that are usually in sight of the ocean. The populations in the west of the range have dark pink to salmon flowers and those in the east have cream to pinkish orange flowers. Flowers are adapted for pollination by sunbirds with a long perianth tube. An article here describes a rare finding of this species. The first photograph from Cameron McMaster was taken on the farm Fairfield in the Napier district where it occurs on sandstone slopes. The second photo was taken by Rachel Saunders.
Gladiolus miniatus is found on coastal limestone outcrops from Hermanus to Agulhas. Spring blooming flowers are salmon with red along the midline. The first photo was taken by Dirk Wallace and the second and third by Cameron McMaster at Arniston. The last two photos were taken by Mary Sue Ittner in May 2005 when they were blooming for the first time from seed in Northern California with California bulb companions Brodiaea jolonensis, Allium unifolium and Triteleia hyacinthina in bloom in the same raised bed.
Gladiolus monticola is found on rocky sandstone slopes in the southwestern Cape. There are populations on Table Mountain. It has pink to apricot flowers with darker pink markings on the lower tepals and blooms summer into fall before the single leaf is produced. The first two photos by Bob Rutemoeller. This first photo shows it as the only bulb blooming in one of our raised beds that only has bulbs from winter rainfall areas, blooming in July 2003 in the northern hemisphere. The leaf in the picture is of another Gladiolus that bloomed a month earlier. In the second photo we put cardboard behind the flowers to get the close-up that shows the details better. The third photo was taken years later by Mary Sue Ittner. The last photo from Rachel Saunders was taken on Table Mountain February 2011.
Gladiolus nerineoides (N.E.Br.) G.J.Lewis is found on rocky sandstone slopes and cliffs in the southwestern Cape, flowering January-March. Growing from 35 to 60 cm high and flowering before the leaves are produced, it has funnel shaped scarlet flowers crowded together. Photos from iNaturalist taken by Peter Thompson in February and shared under a CC BY-NC license.
Gladiolus nigromontanus Goldblatt is a rare South African species that occurs only on rocky outcrops on sandstone slopes in the Swartberg Mountains. Flowering in autumn (March) and best a few years after a fire, it grows to 30 cm with narrow leaves and small white long tubed flowers suffused light pink and marked with red and yellow on the three lower lobes. Flowers are in a 3 to 6 flower spike. Photos from the book Plants of the Klein Karoo courtesy of Jan and Anne Lise Schutte-Vlok.
Gladiolus oppositiflorus Herb. is found in the southern part of the summer rainfall area where it grows in open grasslands and often in rocky sites where there is some protection from predators. Flowers are salmon to pale pink or mauve, with the lower three tepals paler in the midline and having a reddish to purple median streak. This species blooms summer into fall. The first two photos by Mary Sue Ittner of a plant growing in the ground in Northern California and blooming late August-September 2004. The last two photos were taken by Cameron McMaster at Maclear in the Eastern Cape February 2008.
A shorter-stemmed form with salmon colored flowers was described as Gladiolus salmoneus Baker and later considered to be Gladiolus oppositiflorus ssp. salmoneus (Baker) Oberm. Although this subspecies is still recognized by Kew, Goldblatt and Manning in Gladiolus of Southern Africa did not think the differences warranted subspecies treatment. The first two photos of this form taken in the Eastern Cape January 2008 by Cameron McMaster. The last photo is from Rachel Saunders.
Gladiolus overbergensis Goldblatt & M.P.de Vos is a rare species found in the southern part of the southwestern Cape. Growing from 35 to 50 cm high, it is reported to be found in sandy loam and fynbos or fynbos-renosterveld, flowering July-September. Flowers are bright red to orange with a long perianth tube which could make them adapted for pollination by sunbirds. Past names include Antholyza guthriei L.Bolus and Homoglossum guthriei (L.Bolus) L.Bolus. Photo from iNaturalist taken by Lindsay Lewis taken in the Overberg in June and shared under a CC BY-NC license.
Gladiolus priorii (N.E.Br.) Goldblatt & M.P.de Vos (syn. Homoglossum priorii (N.E.Br.) N.E.Br.) is a fall blooming species (April to June) found on sandstone and granite slopes in the Southwestern Cape, South Africa. Growing from 30 to 40 cm high, it has leathery linear leaves and tubular red flowers with yellow throats in a one to four flowered spike. They droop slightly, making it hard to see the centers unless you crouch down. It is considered relatively easy to grow in captivity, although Mary Sue Ittner has found in her Northern California coastal garden that it is short lived and has to be started regularly from seed. The first photo from Bob Rutemoeller shows a plant growing in the ground, flowering in November. The second photo was taken by Mary Sue Ittner, the third by Alan Horstmann, the fourth by Michael Mace, and the last by Bill Dijk.
The first two photos were taken by Cameron McMaster. The last two photos were taken by Rachel Saunders. The first of these was taken June 2011 of this species blooming on Table Mountain in the southwestern Cape in an area that had previously burned and the second in Hermanus.
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