Gladiolus saccatus flowers with purple bracts

The flowers of Gladiolus saccatus grow in an inclined spike, from eight to twelve-flowered in two opposing ranks. Each flower is subtended by two brownish purple bracts that are slightly succulent, folded around the base of the corolla tube. The inner bract is smaller than the outer one. 

The flowers are bright red and narrowly tubular, the tube up to 2 cm long. The cylindrical tube is formed by the long, spoon-shaped upper tepal with the small, lower tepals that have some green and yellow colouring. The tube protects the stamens that have oblong, orange anthers shielded below the bowl at the upper tepal tip.

Blooming comes at the end of winter. This flower was found near Springbok during August. 

The distinctively asymmetrical flower superficially resembles that of G. cunonius, another narrow-flowered red Gladiolus that occurs in a non-overlapping distribution to the south, along the coast.

The common name of suikerkannetjie suggests much nectar. The flowers are pollinated by birds, particularly the malachite sunbird that feed on the nectar (Manning, 2009; Goldblatt, et al, 1998; iNaturalist).