Wild Gladiolus – Gladiolus sp?

I first saw a gladiolus flowering next to our little stream on the border of our property when we were pumping water from our borehole up to the 5000 litre water tank next to the house. This reminded me that now is the time to look out for more of these flowers.  Guess what; just next to the JoJo tank I discovered 4 more clumps of Gladioli and another two more plants flowering in the nearby grassland.  Currently only four of the clumps have open flowers on them – as you will see in my photos, but there is another flower spike on the same plant and the other larger clump also has a flower spike.  When these flowers open it will add quite a splash of colour to this very stony area in the veld.  I was also watching another plant next to the path we had made leading to Chestnut rock; however a porcupine decided that the juicy corm would make a good supper, and so on Wednesday I found a large hole and the leaves and the base of the corm lying next to the path.  I have rescued the base and have put it in a small container with water in the hope that it may sprout again.  If I am successful, I will replant it back next to the path.  With any luck the porcupine may give it a second chance.

Now you may be wondering why I haven’t provided the botanical name, well, because there are so many options and when I check the SANBI (South African Biodiversity’s website www.ispotnature.org there are just too many differing opinions on whether similar flowers are:

Genus	species	Distribution
Gladiolus	crassifolius	Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West
	densiflorus	KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga
	ecklonii	Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga
	hollandii	Limpopo, Mpumalanga
	vinosomaculatus	Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West

That all I can say is that this is a wild Gladiolus.  There are in total 170 Gladiolus species indigenous to South Africa.

The Gladiolus genus falls under the Iridaceae (Iris) family and gets its name from the Latin meaning small sword referring to the leaves. These perennial plants have corms which is an underground swollen stem used for storing nutrients.  A bulb is defined as having rings and scales which are swollen leaves modified to store food, while corms have a basal plate at the bottom and one or more growing points at the top and do not have rings when cut apart.  The flowers appear on spikes and may have only a few or many flowers per spike.  In rare cases there may be only one or in some cases two flowers per spike.  Flowers appear in late summer to autumn and are popular as cut flowers.  The flowers consist of 6 tepals joined to form a tube surrounded by green soft textured bracts.  The tube varies from short to long dependent on the different species.  There are three stamens and one style with three branches.

The seeds appear as a flattened membranous wing which contains a central pellet-like structure which is the actual seed. Plants may also be propagated by digging up the corms once the plants have finished flowering and removing the cormlets (baby corms) at the base of the corm and planting these, or by planting the seeds.  It can take up to three years for a plant to reach maturity.

 

A little whimsy – Petal Icedancer

She protects the vulnerable and brings justice to the wronged. She lives in gardens and parks where almond trees and roses grow. She can only be seen when the bees swarm and the crickets chirrup. She wears soft pale pink and yellow petals and has icy blue butterfly wings.