Gladiolus ecklonii flower

Pinkish red Gladiolus ecklonii flowers may be as spotted as the ones of other colours. This one was found in grassland west of Lydenburg during the rainy season in January.

The outer whorl of tepals has bigger limbs than the inner one. Median tepal lines are more spotted, almost continuous or left white in parts. The spots on the outside of some tepals on the emerging bud at the top of the picture are darker and blue purple rather than pinkish red of those on most of the inside surfaces of the open flowers. Or some flowers have overall bluer purple tepals sharing corollas with the more pinkish red ones.

The pointed, dull yellow patches or nectar guides on the lateral pair of lower tepals may be narrower or wider, yellower or pale creamy on different plants. The central tepal of the flower fully in view also has a guide showing, smaller than the other two, as it is variably concealed in different flowers by the two laterals positioned over it (Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; iNaturalist).