Hi, In the middle of doing the thumbnails for the Southern African Gladiolus wiki pages I decided to add some habitat shots from our trip to South Africa in August and September last year and others from Cameron McMaster's CD that shows pictures from the area he lives in, the Overberg, and some from the western Cape as well. This is taking a bit of time since there are so many of them. One of the things that strikes me always is the variation you see in the wild. The Gladiolus species are so gorgeous I think. Blooming for me now are Gladiolus gracilis and all the Gladiolus huttonii hybrids and there are lots of spikes here and there of other species. I've been picking more of them this year so I can enjoy them before the rain ruins them. So as not to overwhelm you I'm going to announce the Gladiolus pages as I finish them instead of all at once. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… I added habitat pictures of Gladiolus abbreviatus from Cameron. I still think this is a rather strange looking one that grows in grassy areas. I added more habitat pictures of Gladiolus alatus too. We saw it a lot of times on our trip, but the ones pictured were ones we couldn't forget. For one thing there was a mass of them. And for another, not far from where we saw them a farmer had plowed over a huge mass of them and just left it a ruinous mess. What he had done was illegal we were told and he hadn't done anything to plant the field afterwards. Perhaps it was a way to say later there was nothing special on his property he needed to protect. It was very sad to see. There are new habitat pictures from Cameon of G. brevifolius and G. bullatus. And there is an especially nice picture of G. carinatus Cameron took at Hopefield in the western Cape. Pictures from him of Gladiolus carmineus in habitat illustrate how often this one grows with a view of the ocean. The same was true of G. cunonius growing near Arniston. I live within the sight of the Pacific Ocean in northern California and G. carmineus is naturalizing in my garden, but G. cunonius that is about to bloom I have less success growing. I keep trying it again from seed, but the leaves get damaged in our wet winters. Perhaps the difference is that G. carmineus blooms in fall when it is still usually dry here. Finally there are a couple more habitat pictures of the beautiful G. debilis from Cameron. More pages to come when I finish. I have some more wild pictures of the other species in what I'll call the Gladiolus alatus complex. There is probably a more official name for these, but they are the ones that look similar: Gladiolus alatus, Gladiolus equitans, Gladiolus meliusculus, G. pulcherrimus and G. speciosus. Mary Sue