Quick Characteristics:
| Height: | 45-150 cm (1.5-4.9 ft) |
| Flower Colors: | pink, red |
| Flower Season: | early autumn |
| Life form: | corm |
Gladiolus reginae Goldblatt & J.C.Manning is a rare species known from only two populations where plants grow in open woodland in rocky outcrops, partially shaded by shrubs and trees, in heavy metal-enriched soils. Growing from .4 to 1.5 m, it has 7 to 16 unscented long tubed flowers in an erect spike. Flowers are pale flesh-pink flushed deeper salmon and the lower three tepals are flushed deep red in the basal third with longitudinal lines. The upper three tepals are flushed deep red at the base. Flowering takes place from mid March to mid April, but may skip a year if it's too dry. Goldblatt and Manning report that flowers are pollinated by long-proboscid flies, but also attract ants with sweet droplets from the tips of the bracts, likely for protection from other insects.
Photos by Rachel Saunders shows specimens found in the Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve (situated in Mpumalanga).
