Gladiolus cunonius

Gladiolus cunonius, commonly known in Afrikaans as the lepelblom (spoon flower) and the suikerkannetjie (little sugar jar) and scientifically previously Anomalesia cunonia, is a cormous, deciduous perennial reaching heights from 20 cm to 45 cm. Its flattened to globose corm is up to 9 mm in diameter, covered in papery to membranous tunics. The corm does not accumulate but disintegrates in subsequent seasons while stolons are produced from the base.

An annual fan of usually six to eight, narrowly sword-shaped leaves are produced. The soft-textured leaves reach to the base of the flower spike or a little higher, becoming up to 12 mm wide. One or two of the leaves grow on the stem, smaller than the basal ones.

The erect flower stem flexes outwards above the highest leaf sheath and producing from three to eight bright red flowers in an inclined spike. The lower tepals and the perianth tube of up to 15 mm start off green. The long upper tepal is unusual. It is about spoon-shaped. Bean and Johns show a picture in their book of a sunbird reaching the nectar by inserting its beak under this tepal. Flowering happens in spring to after midspring. Pollination is done by sunbirds.

The species distribution is near the coast in the Western Cape, from the Cape Peninsula to around Knysna. The flowering plant in picture was found about ten metres from the sea at Vermont near Hermanus during October.

The habitat is sandy dune soil and among rocks near the coast. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; Bean and Johns, 2005; Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).