Compilation
Gladiolus huillensis

Plants 30–100 cm high. Corms 16–20 mm in diameter; tunics firmly membranous to papery, fragmenting irregularly into mostly vertical strips. Leaves 3–5 on flowering stem, short and sheathing for most of their length, obscurely to obviously white pubescent, imbricate, usually at least 2 with short blades to 8 cm long; blades more or less linear, the margins and midrib thickened (well developed foliage leaves which are produced from separate shoots after flowering are not known and are probably not produced). Stem unbranched, sheathed except for a short distance below the spike, often with a short membranous sheathing leaf inserted on the upper third of the stem just above the uppermost sheathing leaf. Spike 6–14(20)-flowered; bracts green below, dry and light-brown above, 13–20(25) mm long, sometimes sparsely pubescent above, the inner about as long as or only slightly shorter than the outer. Flowers bright-red, often marked with yellow on the lower tepals and in the throat; perianth tube slender below and abruptly expanded into a cylindric upper part, the lower part 11–16 mm long and c. 1 mm in diameter, exserted from the bracts, the upper part 10–12 mm long and c. 3 mm in diameter, ascending to horizontal; tepals unequal, the uppermost c. 15 × 15 mm, spathulate, larger than the others and extending horizontally over the stamens, the upper lateral tepals deltoid, 5–6 mm long, joined to the uppermost for c. 3 mm, the lower 3 tepals lanceolate and directed forwards, the lower lateral tepals c. 6 mm long, reaching the apices of the upper lateral tepals, the lowermost tepal shorter than the rest, c. 3 mm long. Filaments c. 20 mm long, reaching to about the middle of the uppermost tepal; anthers c. 7 mm long, reaching nearly to the apex of the uppermost tepal or barely exceeding it. Style dividing opposite the upper half of the anthers, style branches 3–3.5 mm long, ultimately reaching the anther apices. Capsules 10–16 mm long, broadly ovoid.