Compilation
Gladiolus dieterlenii

Plants 40-90(-120) cm. high, sometimes with up to 5 stems per corm. Corm 2-3 cm. in diameter, tunics coriaceous to coarsely fibrous. Foliage leaves 4-8, either few and emergent at flowering time, then the stem bearing only 1-2 cauline and sheathing leaves and 2 laminate basal leaves, or with several basal laminate leaves and 2-3 cauline leaves, these with progressively shorter blades and the upper sometimes entirely sheathing, blades narrowly lanceolate to linear, exceeding the spike in short-stemmed plants, or reaching to ± the base of the spike in tall, 5-12 mm. wide, the midrib and margins hyaline and moderately thickened. Stem simple or 1-3(-5) branched. spike with the main axis (6-)12-22-flowered, the branches with fewer flowers; bracts 12-18 mm. long, usually pale green or flushed purple, soft-textured initially, becoming dry and membranous above (in fruit often translucent light red-brown), ± obtuse to subacute, usually apiculate, the inner slightly shorter than the outer and 2-apiculate. Flowers pale to deep pink or purple, the lower lateral and sometimes the lowermost tepals each with a dark band of colour across the lower half of the limbs, sometimes the dark band edged with cream; perianth-tube curved and funnel-shaped, cylindric below, widening and curving outward above, ± 8 mm. long; tepals unequal, the dorsal 2-2.2 cm. long, ± 8 mm. wide, (often less when dry), largest, arched over the stamens, the upper laterals 1.8-2.2 cm. long, directed forward and curving outward in the upper half, the lower 3 ± straight and directed downward, united basally for 2-3 mm., narrowed into channelled claws below, the laterals 1.2-1.5 cm., the lowermost 1.6-2 cm. long. Filaments ± 1.2 cm. long, exserted for 6 mm.; anthers 7-8 mm. long. Style usually dividing opposite the lower half of the anthers, the branches ± 2 mm. long. Capsules obovoid, 9-12(-14) mm. long.