There are about 163 species of Gladiolus (with new ones being discovered) in the area south of the Tropic of Capricorn and including Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Mozambique. Some are found in winter rainfall areas and some in summer rainfall areas. For more information see Goldblatt and Manning, 1998. Southern African species from I-Me are pictured on this page.
Gladiolus index - Southern African Gladiolus A-B - Southern African Gladiolus Ca - Southern African Gladiolus Ce-E - Southern African Gladiolus F-H - Southern African Gladiolus Mi-Pa – Southern African Gladiolus Pe-Sc - Southern African Gladiolus Se-T - Southern African Gladiolus U-Z - Gladiolus Hybrids - Miscellaneous Gladiolus
Gladiolus inflatus grows in open habitats on sandstone, often in rocky outcrops or in stony ground among shrubs and restios in the mountains of the Western Cape. It has pink to mauve, purple or violet short tubed flowers. The lower tepals have dark spear or spade shaped purple to red marks in the middle third. The mark on the lower median tepal is usually yellow in the center. This species blooms in spring. Photo taken by Rod Saunders.
Gladiolus inflexus is endemic to the southwestern Cape. It has purple flowers with a creamy throat speckled to blotched purple on the lower tepals. Photo by Alan Horstmann.
Gladiolus involutus is found on clay slopes in renosterveld and grassland in areas with summer and winter rainfall. Flowering from winter into spring, it has white flowers with yellow-green markings on the lower tepals. Photo by Bob Werra.
Gladiolus liliaceus flowers are brown to russet or beige and turning mauve in the evenings when it is supposed to be fragrant. The ones I have grown have not been very fragrant and the color change is subtle but we have tried to capture it. Growing on clay slopes over a wide area flowering winter to spring. This first photo by Bob Rutemoeller was taken during the day and the second in the early evening. A third photo was taken by Doug Westfall and a fourth by Mary Sue Ittner.
The forms pictured below in the first four photos were all found at Drayton and were blooming August-September 2003. Photos by Bob Rutemoeller including a single yellow one. The last photo is of a red flowered one photographed by Cameron McMaster near Bredasdorp in the Overberg
Gladiolus longicollis is species found in a wide area of southern Africa, including the southern Cape, the eastern Cape, the Free State and the Northern Province. It has pale yellow to white long tubed flowers that are either uniformly colored or mottled with brown. Flowers are night booming and sweetly scented of carnation and cloves. Photos from Cameron McMaster taken in the Eastern Cape.
Gladiolus maculatus extends across the southern coast and immediate interior of the winter rainfall area to the Eastern Cape where it is often found growing in heavy soils in renosterveld. Flowers are dull yellow to lilac and speckled with brown or purplish spots. They are long-tubed and fragrant during the day and the evening. The first three pictures taken by Cameron McMaster near Napier and Bredasdorp in the Overberg. The fourth and fifth pictures are of garden flowers taken by Mary Sue Ittner December 2007 and January 2009. The sixth picture was taken by Alan Horstmann.
Gladiolus marlothii is endemic to the Roggeveld Escarpment. It grows on open slopes or among rock outcrops, always in heavy clay and usually in rocky situations at an elevation of 1800 m. Flowers are pale blue-lilac with a transverse yellow band about the base of the limb and are densely speckled with dark purple at the edges of the yellow band. Photograph taken by Rod Saunders.
Gladiolus martleyi syn. Gladiolus pillansii is a delicate pink flower with nice markings on the lower tepals. It blooms in the fall on a flowering stalk without leaves. This one was grown from IBSA seed from Betty's Bay. It can be found on sandy and rock flats in various areas in the Cape. Photo by Bob Rutemoeller.
Gladiolus meliusculus , syn. Gladiolus alatus var. meliusculus is found on low hills and flats on the western Cape coastal plain where is grows in sandy sites formed from decomposed granite or sandstone that are waterlogged during the period of growth. Flowers are salmon, brick-red or orange with yellow markings on the lower tepals. Gladiolus meliusculus differs from Gladiolus alatus by having shorter stamens and the yellow on the lower tepals is less pronounced and edged by a band or red-purple and the upped halves are pink to orange. Photos by Mary Sue Ittner and Bob Rutemoeller taken September 2006 near Darling.
Gladiolus meridionalis photographed by Cameron McMaster on the farm Fairfield in the Napier district where it occurs on sandstone slopes. This species is found in the Southern Cape from the Overberg to Port Elizabeth and flowers from June to August.
Gladiolus index - Southern African Gladiolus A-B - Southern African Gladiolus Ca - Southern African Gladiolus Ce-E - Southern African Gladiolus F-H - Southern African Gladiolus Mi-Pa – Southern African Gladiolus Pe-Sc - Southern African Gladiolus Se-T - Southern African Gladiolus U-Z - Gladiolus Hybrids - Miscellaneous Gladiolus