Compilation
Gladiolus elegans

Plants (15-)30-80 cm. high. Corms (1.2-)1.8-3(-4) cm. in diameter, tunics membranous, fragmenting irregularly, occasionally subfibrous, the fibres then somewhat clawed. Foliage leaves 4-7, the lower 3-5 ± basal, 1/2-2/3 as long as the stem, narrowly lanceolate, (6-)9-16(-24) mm. wide, the margins and midribs not or hardly thickened, upper leaves cauline and shorter. Stem erect and straight, unbranched. spike (2-)8-20(-25)-flowered, erect, often congested, evidently straight but flexuose under the bracts; bracts 2-3(-5) cm. long, 8-10 mm. at the widest, green or becoming dry and brown at the end of flowering, firm, sometimes lightly striate (the veins raised and hyaline), imbricate, 2-2.5(-3) internodes long, the inner ± 2/3 as long as the outer. Flowers usually light to dark purple (to dark reddish brown) fading to cream in the throat or mostly white, the tube usually dark purple below, the lower tepals each with a dark purple diamond-shaped mark in the distal third; perianth-tube ± 1.2 cm. long, curving outward and widening above; tepals unequal, the dorsal (1.6-)2.2-2.6 × 1.2-1.8 cm., arched over the stamens, the lower 3 narrowed below into claws, the limbs flexed downward and channelled, joined to the upper laterals for 4-6 mm. and to one another for ± 2 mm., ± 12 × 5 mm., usually shortly exceeding the dorsal in profile. Filaments 9-13 mm. long, exserted 5-6 mm.; anthers 7-10 mm. long. Style dividing opposite the lower half of the anthers, branches ± 2 mm. long. Capsules 1.2-1.5 cm. long, narrowly ellipsoid, fairly hard, ± woody. Fig. 14/3-5.