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!Gladiolus dalenii Van Geel 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: Sertum Botanicum 2: 18. 1829. (Sert. Bot.) Name publication detail
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 6/6/2016)
Acceptance : Accepted
Taxon Profile     (Last Modified On 1/30/2017)
Description: Plants (50--)70--120(--150) cm high. Corm (15--)20--30 mm in diameter, tunics of brittle membranous layers, the outer becoming irregularly broken, sometimes fibrous, reddish brown, usually bearing numerous tiny cormlets around the base. Cataphylls firm-textured, the upper largest and up to 15 cm long, green or flushed purplish, occasionally densely short-pubescent. Leaves either contemporary with the flowering stem (subsp. dalenii) and four to six, sometimes seven, or borne later on separate shoots (subspp. andongensis and welwitschii) and two to four on the flowering stem, then foliage leaves produced on separate shoots after flowering; when borne on the flowering stem at least the lower two basal or nearly so, long-laminate, narrowly lanceolate to more or less linear, (5--)10--20(--30) mm wide, about half as long as the spike, firm textured with moderately raised and thickened midribs and margins, the upper one or two leaves cauline and sheathing for at least half their length, sometimes entirely sheathing, often imbricate; when foliage leaves borne on separate shoots, then leaves of the flowering stem entirely sheathing or with blades up to 6 cm long, the foliage leaves of the separate shoots usually only two, lanceolate, or in subspecies welwitschii linear and the margins moderately thickened. Stem unbranched, 4--6 mm in diameter below the first flower.Spike (2--)3- to 7(--14)-flowered; bracts green, (2.5--)4--7 cm long, sometimes dry and pale apically, the inner slightly shorter than the outer. Flowers either red to orange with a yellow mark on each of the three lower tepals or yellow to greenish and often with red to brown streaks on the upper tepals; perianth tube (25--)35--45 mm long, nearly cylindric and curving outward in the upper half; tepals unequal, the three upper broadly elliptic-obovate, the dorsal largest, 35--50 mm long, 22--30 mm at the widest, horizontal to downcurved and concealing the stamens, the upper laterals about as long to c. 5 mm shorter than the dorsal, 20--30 mm wide, directed forward, often curving outward distally, the lower three tepals curving downward, 20--25(--30) mm long, 8--12 mm wide, the lowermost somewhat longer and narrower than the lower laterals. Filaments c. 25 mm long, exserted 15--18 mm from the tube; anthers 12--16 mm long, pale yellow. Ovary 6--8 mm long; style arched over the stamens, dividing near the apex of the anthers, branches (4--)5--6 mm long. Capsules ellipsoid to ovoid, (18--)25--35 mm long, 12--14 mm in diameter at the widest; seeds 8--12  5--9 mm, the wing well developed, lightly undulate, glossy light brown, seed body c. 2 mm in diameter. Chromosome number 2n = 30, 60, 90 (45, 75). Flowering time: usually at least 3 weeks after the onset of the rainy season, (mid November to) December to May, rarely in June in southern Africa and eastern tropical Africa and Madagascar; May to August in western and central Africa; mostly August and September in Ethiopia; January to March in Eritrea and the Arabian Peninsula.
Country: South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Congo (DR), Cameroon, Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Guinea, Benin, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone
Additional countries outside Sub-Sahara Africa: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Madagascar
South African Province: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga
Distribution and ecology: by far the most widespread and common species of Gladiolus, occurring virtually throughout the grasslands, savannas and woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa except the winter-rainfall region of southern Africa and the surrounding arid to semiarid Kalahari and Namib Deserts and the southern African Karoo. It also occurs in the highlands of southwestern Arabia and in Madagascar, where it is spread almost throughout the nonforested parts of the island except in the dry southwest. Thus G. dalenii may be found from Senegal in the west, across central Africa to Ethiopia, Eritrea, and western Saudi Arabia and Yemen. From there it extends southward through eastern Africa and Mozambique to Natal and the eastern Cape Province, South Africa, and across southern tropical Africa to the western Angolan highlands. Gladiolus dalenii favors moderately moist habitats and is thus most common in hill country and upland grassland, but it also occurs in fairly dry habitats with only a short wet season.

Across its range there are a number of variants, the most important of which is those that flower early in the season, 3–4 weeks after the first soaking rains of the wet season, and have reduced leaves on the flowering stem. Fully developed foliage leaves are produced from separate shoots on the same corm later in the growing season. Treated as separate species by some authors (Gladiolus andongensis and G. welwitschii from Angola; G. goetzii from Tanzania; G. pauciflorus from Zaire; G. mildbraedii from Rwanda), the reduced-leaved plants seem best regarded as two subspecies of G. dalenii, although they have not before been so treated. Plants with flowering stems lacking foliage leaves, subspecies andongensis and welwitschii together have virtually the same distribution as subspecies dalenii except that they do not occur in South Africa, Madagascar, or Arabia, nor in Eritrea and the northern half of Ethiopia. In Kaffa Province, Ethiopia, some collections of an unusually slender form of subspecies andongensis, with flowers pale pink, may be hybrids with cooccurring G. roseolus.

Diagnosis: recognized by the large flowers, 60–80 mm long, with the upper three tepals 35–50 mm long, much exceeding the recurved lower tepals, the strongly hooded dorsal tepal, well-exserted anthers, and fairly long perianth tube slightly exceeding the long floral bracts. The leaves are typically broad and sword-shaped, but as noted above, in subspecies andongensis and subspecies welwitschii the flowering stem lacks foliage leaves, and in some populations of subspecies dalenii the leaves may be narrow and no more than 5–8 mm wide. Whatever the width of the leaves, the midribs and margins are lightly thickened but not especially prominent. Gladiolus dalenii may be confused with western Angolan endemic, G. pallidus, which has similar flowers though more often spotted than streaked with darker color (as is typical of G. dalenii), but linear leaves with very heavily thickened and raised margins. Also sometimes confused with G. dalenii, the southern tropical African G. melleri has small flowers with a tube 10–15 mm long, dorsal tepal 25–38 mm long, and bracts 15–23(–30) mm long. The flowering stem lacks foliage leaves and filaments are included in the perianth tube. Treatment of G. melleri as a variety of G. dalenii is unwarranted, although there is no doubt that the two species are closely related.

 

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1.Leaves of the flowering stem with long well-developed blades (i.e. leaves and flowers contemporaneous)
 Gladiolus dalenii Van Geel subsp. dalenii
1.Leaves of the flowering stem either entirely sheathing or with short blades to 10(–15) cm long and long-bladed foliage leaves always produced on separate shoots later in the season (i.e., leaves and flowers not contemporaneous)
2.Dorsal tepal as long as or slightly exceeding the upper lateral tepals; the base not surrounded by a neck of coarse fibers reaching ground level
 Gladiolus dalenii subsp. andongensis
2.Dorsal tepal 3–5 mm shorter than the upper lateral tepals; the base surrounded by a neck of coarse fibers reaching ground level
 Gladiolus dalenii subsp. welwitschii
 


 

Specimens whose coordinates are enclosed in square brackets [ ] have been mapped to a standard reference mark based on political units.
 
 
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