Compilation
Gladiolus trichophyllus

Plants (20-)40-70 cm. high. Corm 2.5-3 cm. in diameter, depressed-globose, usually persisting for some years, usually dark red, the tunics coriaceous to somewhat membranous, fragmenting irregularly. Leaves (of the flowering stem) 3-6, the lower 2-4 basal and laminate, the blades sometimes very short, linear to narrowly lanceolate or falcate, 4-6 mm. wide, often emergent and short at the beginning of flowering, ultimately the longest to 35 cm., usually lightly pubescent, especially on the sheaths, the margins and midribs moderately thickened, the upper 1-3 leaves largely to entirely sheathing and glabrous; longer leaves sometimes produced after flowering from separate shoots. Stem often 1-2 branched, occasionally simple, sometimes more than 1 stem produced from the same corm, the branching often subdivaricate but the main axis always thicker, ± 4 mm. in diameter at the base of the spike. spike 6-9(-16)-flowered, the lateral spikes with fewer flowers; bracts herbaceous below, becoming ± membranous above or dry at anthesis, 1-1.5(-2) cm. long, the inner usually slightly longer than the outer. Flowers purple to pinkish, without markings or with 1 or all of the lower tepals with a small yellow mark in the distal half; perianth-tube expanding gradually from base to apex, curving outward above, 1-1.7 cm. long; tepals nearly equal or unequal with the upper 3 larger than the lower, the upper 3 ascending, the lower descending, lanceolate, narrowed below, 3-3.5 cm. long, 1.3-1.5 cm. at the widest (poorly pressed flowers may shrink up to 50% of their original size). Filaments ± 2 cm. long, exserted 1.2-1.5 cm. from the tube; anthers 6-8 mm. long. Style dividing beyond the anther-apices, the branches ± 3 mm. long. Capsules 1.5-2.2 cm. long. Fig. 12/3-4.