Compilation
Gladiolus welwitschii

Plants 25-40(-60) cm. high. Corm 2.5-3.5 cm. in diameter, tunics coriaceous, fragmenting irregularly, straw-coloured, the outer layer sometimes becoming fibrous. Foliage leaves of the flowering stem usually all partly to entirely sheathing, (1-)2-3(or more), hardly differing from the cataphylls, sometimes with short blades 2-5(-10) cm. long, often partly dry by anthesis; foliage leaves produced after flowering on separate shoots, evidently solitary, lanceolate, ultimately at least 30 cm. long, ± 1 cm. wide, the margins and midrib moderately thickened and hyaline; occasionally flowering stems with 1-2 long-laminate leaves. Stem unbranched, rarely branched, 3-4 mm. in diameter at the base of the spike. spike 5-9(-12)-flowered; bracts (1.5-)2-2.8(-3.5) cm. long, green, often flushed reddish and becoming membranous above, the inner slightly shorter than the outer. Flowers either orange-red to pink or rarely yellow to whitish, without markings; perianth-tube (1.2-)1.8-2 cm. long, widening evenly from the base, gently curving outward; tepals unequal, the upper 3 2.5-3.8 × 1.5-1.8 cm., strongly recurved distally, the dorsal horizontal or down-tilted, the upper laterals slightly narrower, directed forwards, the lower tepals curving downwards, the lower laterals ± 2.5 × 1.2-1.5 cm., the lowermost 3-3.5 cm. long, often ± as long as the upper. Filaments 8-10 mm. long, included in the upper part of the tube; anthers 0.7-1.2 cm. long. Style dividing 2-3 mm. beyond the apex of the anthers, the branches 6-8 mm. long. Capsules oblong-obovoid, 1.5-2(-2.5) cm. long.