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!Gladiolus verdickii De Wild. & T. Durand Search in The Plant ListSearch in IPNISearch in Australian Plant Name IndexSearch in NYBG Virtual HerbariumSearch in Muséum national d'Histoire naturelleSearch in Type Specimen Register of the U.S. National HerbariumSearch in Virtual Herbaria AustriaSearch in JSTOR Plant ScienceSearch in SEINetSearch in African Plants Database at Geneva Botanical GardenAfrican Plants, Senckenberg Photo GallerySearch in Flora do Brasil 2020Search in Reflora - Virtual HerbariumSearch in Living Collections Decrease font Increase font Restore font
 

Published In: Bulletin de la Société Royale de Botanique de Belgique 40: 29. 1901. (Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belgique) Name publication detailView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 1/20/2017)
Acceptance : Accepted
Taxon Profile     (Last Modified On 1/20/2017)
Description: Plants 700–1100 mm high. Corm 20–35 mm diam.; tunics of papery to matted fibrous layers, fragmenting irregularly or breaking into vertical fibers below, producing short, flat, fasciated stolons from the base, these each bearing numerous cormlets. Leaves 5 to 7, lower 3 or 4 more or less basal and largest, reaching to about base of spike, blades narrowly lanceolate to linear, (8–)10–15 mm wide, main vein and margins hyaline and lightly thickened, upper leaves cauline and decreasing in size above. Stem unbranched or with one short branch, c. 3 mm diam.at spike base. Spike 4- to 8-flowered, flexed outward at base; bracts narrowly lanceolate, attenuate, apparently green below, membranous above and becoming dry and light brown toward apices, (30–)40–45(–55) mm long, inner slightly shorter than outer and forked apically. Flowers white to yellow, sometimes conspicuously veined dark red to pink, lower lateral tepals with a cream to yellow mark in lower center; perianth tube narrowly funnel-shaped, widening and curving outward above, 25–35 mm long; tepals lanceolate-oblong, dorsal largest, 45–50 mm long, often less when dry, inclined over stamens, upper laterals slightly shorter and spreading at right angles to tube, lower laterals smallest, 38–40 mm long. Filaments arcuate, c. 30 mm long, exserted 14–18 mm from tube; anthers 7–8 mm long, apices with rudimentary appendages less than 0.2 mm long, dark purple. Ovary ellipsoid, 5.5–6.5 mm long; style arching over stamens, dividing at about pex of anthers, branches c. 3.5 mm long, spreading beyond anthers, expanded in upper third. Capsules obovoid-ellipsoid, 10–16(–20) mm long; seeds broadly elliptic, c. 5 mm x 4 mm. Flowering time: mostly in April and May, but sometimes as early as February and as late as July.
Country: Zambia, Congo (DR)
Distribution and ecology: restricted to Katanga in Congo and neighboring northwestern Zambia; in woodland where it flowers toward the end of the wet season or more often at the beginning of the dry season, in May and June. Although it is represented by relatively few collections, it is fairly common in southern Katanga, but as known only from one collection from Zambia in 1995.
Diagnosis: distinguished by large flowers with tepals 45–50 mm long and an unusually long perianth tube, 25–35 mm long. The flowers range in color from whitish to cream with yellow markings on the lower tepals or have a light to heavily pink- to red-veined pattern on a pale background. The plants themselves are tall, sometimes exceeding 100 cm, and have firm-textured leaves usually 10–15 mm wide. The corms have a feature unique in Gladiolus. They bear several short, flat, fasciated stolons that bear numerous tiny terminal cormlets. In combination these characteristics make G. verdickii unmistakable. It is almost certainly closely related to the southern tropical African G. erectiflorus. That species has moderate-sized flowers with tepals 25–35 mm long and a tube 16–18 mm long, far smaller than in G. verdickii. Vegetatively, the two are similar in having comparatively closely set and narrow leaves covering the stem up to the base of the spike, and narrow, elongated floral bracts. Both species also produce cormlets from the base of the main corm, but in G. erectiflorus the cormlets are produced on slender runners of the type found occasionally in several genera of Iridaceae.Gladiolus verdickii has generally been confused with the related G. erectiflorus and the two were regarded as conspecific by Geerinck in accounts of Gladiolus in Congo. No doubt closely related, the two species are separate. Together with the western Angolan G. stenosiphon, they constitute a close-knit and taxonomically isolated group. The latter species is readily distinguished within the alliance by its predominantly white flowers with a long perianth tube, 45–50 mm long, and comparatively short tepals, 25–28 mm long. G. arnoldianus, known only from the type collection, is tentatively included in G. verdickii, but the tall plants have flowers with pure white tepals that have dark (purple?) apices and short stamens, the anther apices of which do not reach above the lower third of the tepals. The stamens of most populations of G. verdickii seem consistently longer and reach about the middle of the tepals. Until more is learned about G. arnoldianus, a species based on just two flowering spikes, it seems best to regard it as a local variant of G. verdickii.

 
 
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