Gladiolus mortonius

Gladiolus mortonius, the small salmon gladiolus, is a cormous perennial reaching heights from 40 cm to 70 cm. It grows annual, deciduous parts from the globose to slightly flattened corm, 3 cm in diameter and covered in a leathery to papery tunic.

Three sheathing cataphylls are present at the base, the upper one 15 cm tall and leaf-like. Seven to twelve narrowly lance-shaped leaves arranged in a fan are about 2 cm wide and the tallest reaching more or less to the base of the inflorescence. The leaves are mostly basal and thickened in midrib and margins, more than in the secondary veins. Stem-leaves are progressively shorter.

The species distribution is in the Eastern Cape from Somerset East and the Zuurberg to the Winterberg and Elliot to near the Lesotho border.

The plants grow in the open in stony grassland. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).