These colors are often associated with moth pollination, and so some of the most fragrant Gladiolus can be found in this category. Another big group in this category are those species who have occasionally some kind of albino form - rare in nature, but eagerly adopted by gardeners when found.
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Gladiolus acuminatus F.Bolus is an endangered species known from no more than five locations. It is endemic to the Overberg where it grows in stony shale on flats and in renosterveld. It has a long perianth tube and pale greenish cream fragrant flowers. Height: 25-50 cm. Photo by Alan Horstmann.
Gladiolus alatus L. is a winter rainfall species found on flats, slopes, and plateaus, mainly in sand. The flowers are orange, marked yellow and have a light and pleasant scent. Height is 8-25 cm high. Photo 1 was taken near Paarl September 2003 by Bob Rutemoeller. The next two pictures were taken by Bob Rutemoeller and Mary Sue Ittner near Bainskloof September 2006.
Photos below are a white form of this species. The first photo was taken by Alan Horstmann. The next two photos from Mary Sue Ittner and Bob Rutemoeller were taken near Villiersdorp. The last photo by Bob Rutemoeller shows a white form for sale in a nursery in Caledon.
The photos below are of plants in cultivation. Photo 1 by Mary Sue Ittner shows flowers on a plant grown from seed blooming March 2005. Photo 3 from Bob Werra. Photos 3-6 were taken by Nhu Nguyen. Photo 5 show seeds on a 1 cm square grid.
Gladiolus albens Goldblatt & J.C.Manning, syn. Gladiolus maculatus Sweet ssp. eburneus Oberm., is a narrow endemic of the Eastern Cape where it is found on grassy slopes and in fynbos type vegetation on light well drained soils. Although it grows primarily in a summer rainfall zone, the area where it grows does get some winter rainfall and this species flowers in the fall in April and May and has its main growth in winter after flowering. Plants are generally 25 to 50 cm high and the flowering spike has 1 to 3, rarely to 5, flowers. Flowers are white to cream, sometimes with faint speckles or streaks in the throat or all over the tepals, with a long slender perianth tube (35-50 mm) that expands in the upper part and have a dusty sweet scent. Photos taken by Rachel Saunders in the Eastern Cape.
Gladiolus angustus L. is found in wet places on sandstone soils in the southwestern corner of the southern African winter-rainfall region. Growing from 60 to 120 cm high, it flowers in spring (October and November) with cream to pale yellow flowers with diamond spade shaped yellow markings outlined in dark red on the lower tepals. The species has a very long perianth tube, usually 7 to 10 cm, and the lower tepals are substantially shorter than the upper tepals. It is related to Gladiolus carneus and Gladiolus undulatus. The first two photos from Mary Sue Ittner. The next two photos from iNaturalist taken by Chris Vynbos and shared under a CC BY-SA license. The last photo from Rachel Saunders.
Gladiolus appendiculatus G.J.Lewis is native to the Northern Provinces, South Africa and Swaziland where it grows in grassland on mountain slopes usually above 1800 m up to 2100 m. Growing from 35 to 60 cm, it has softly leathery 6 to 9 long leaves tapering to a sharp or blunt tip and 6 to 14 white to pink unscented flowers marked mauve or pink in the lower tepals, borne on one side. The tepals are unequal in size with the upper three largest and the dorsal arching over the stamens. Anthers have long tails. Flowering occurs in April and May. Photo from Rachel Saunders.
Gladiolus debilis Ker Gawler is found on rocky sandstone slopes in the southwest Cape, blooming in spring with white to pale pink flowers with red markings on the lower tepals. The first photo by Mary Sue Ittner was taken in September 2001 in an area in the southwest Cape that had burned the year previously and the second was taken by Bob Rutemoeller September 2003 at Boskloof. The third was taken by Ragnhild Crawford. Photos four and five taken near Napier in the Overberg by Cameron McMaster. The sixth photo was taken by Andrew Harvie at Silvermine in Table Mountain National Park. Last photo by Christopher Whitehouse, taken at the Phillpskop Mountain Reserve near Stanford.
Gladiolus engysiphon G.J.Lewis is found in clay and granitic loam in renosterveld and grassland in the Langeberg Center (Swellendam to Mossel Bay). Growing from 35 to 50 cm high, it flowers March to April. The cream flowers with red median streaks are arranged in a 2 to 6 flowered spike. Photos taken by Rogan Roth in the southern Cape in April 2021. He first thought it was Gladiolus bilineatus which has a similar flower, distribution, and flowering time in the autumn. Both are pollinated by a species of long-proboscid fly. According to John Manning the lowest leaf in Gladiolus bilineatus always develops a short, sword-shaped blade, whereas the leaf blades in Gladiolus engysiphon are either absent entirely or needle-like. The arrangement of the leaves and the diameter of the stem is also different in the two species.
Gladiolus ferrugineus Goldblatt & J.C.Manning grows in marshy grassland or well watered stony slopes in the summer rainfall area in eastern Southern Africa from the Northern Province to North Swaziland. Growing from 35-60 cm, it has 6-8 channeled leaves with the largest leaves twisted, and small white to pink short tubed flowers with rust colored bracts. The lower lateral tepals have cream to pale yellow blotches in the midline. There are two distinct forms. The form from the lower escarpment flowers in summer from late November to early February and has broader leaves and shorter tubes and the form from the upper escarpment flowers in autumn (March and April) and has narrower leaves with thickened margins and twisted blades and longer tubes. Photo from Rachel Saunders.
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