Gladiolus orchidiflorus flower

The fragrant flower of Gladiolus orchidiflorus is short-tubed and two-lipped. Flower colour is grey-green and pale brown to dull purple and yellow.

The dorsal tepal is pale on its inner surface in picture, long and spoon-shaped with the style and stamens arching below it under a darker band. The three thin white style branches curve claw-like. The pale green, cylindrical to flattened anthers another matter. From 5 mm to 11 mm long, the pollen usually exits from a Gladiolus anther via a longitudinal slit. So, what the tiny black eyes or holes at the tips in picture are for, is unknown.

The upper lateral tepals are pale and veined with a faint dark stripe down the centre of each. They are shorter and broader than the dorsal and recurve strongly, their surfaces membranous to covered in tiny, glistening water cells.

The lower three tepals have bright yellow, sometimes greenish transversal bands above halfway to the tips, ending in narrower, dark brown to purplish, jagged stripes on the edges. The lower laterals are positioned over the central one that is bigger with less purple brown.

A flower is about 2,5 cm in diameter (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Le Roux, et al, 2005; Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; iNaturalist).