Tropicos | Name - !Gladiolus melleri Baker

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Iridaceae in sub-Saharan Africa

African Iridaceae > Iridaceae > Gladiolus > Gladiolus melleri

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!Gladiolus melleri Baker

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Project Name Data (Last Modified On 1/22/2017)

Acceptance : Accepted

Taxon Profile (Last Modified On 1/22/2017)

Description: Plants 250–400(–600) mm high. Corm 2.5–3.5 mm diam.; tunics coriaceous, fragmenting irregularly, straw-colored, outer layer sometimes becoming fibrous. Leaves of flowering stem usually all partly to entirely sheathing, rarely 1, usually 2 or 3, sometimes more, hardly differing from the cataphylls, sometimes with short blades 20–50(–100) mm long, often partly dry by anthesis; foliage leaves produced after flowering on separate shoots, evidently solitary, lanceolate, ultimately at least 300 mm long, c. 10 mm wide, margins and main veins moderately thickened and hyaline; occasionally flowering stems with 1 or 2 long-bladed leaves. Stem unbranched, rarely branched, 3–4 mm diam. at spike base. Spike 5- to 9(–12)-flowered; bracts green, often flushed reddish and becoming membranous above, outer (15–)20–28(–35) mm long, inner slightly shorter. Flowers orange-red to salmon, rarely whitish, without contrasting markings; perianth tube (12–)18–20(–30) mm long, widening evenly from base, gently curving outward; tepals unequal, 3 upper 25–38 x 15–18 mm, strongly recurved distally, dorsal horizontal or tilted downward, upper laterals slightly narrower, directed forward, lower tepals curving downward, lower laterals c. 25 x 12–15 mm, lowermost 30–35 mm long, often about as long as upper. Filaments 8–10 mm long, included in upper part of tube; anthers 10–12 mm long. Ovary 4–6 mm long; style arched above stamens, dividing 2–3 mm beyond apex of anthers, branches 6–8 mm long. Capsules oblong to ellipsoid, 15–20(–25) mm long; seeds oval to elliptic, c. 10 x 6–7 mm, broadly winged. Chromosome number 2n = 30. Flowering time: August to November, occasionally into December, toward the end of the dry season.

Country: Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Congo (DR), Malawi

Distribution and ecology: widespread across southern tropical Africa from northern Angola through southern Congo and Zambia to western Tanzania, Malawi, central Mozambique, and Zimbabwe but surprisingly not in the western Angolan highlands, where so many other species of tropical Gladiolus have their southwestern limit; seasonally wet sites, such as the margins of dambos and in poorly drained savanna, but blooming at the end of the dry season, from August to November, when such places are often quite dry. Its flowering is stimulated by fire, and it is common to see signs of burning on specimens.

Diagnosis: with only sheathing leaves on the flowering stem and typically with brick-red to salmon flowers, Gladiolus melleri can be recognized in addition by the relatively short bracts 15–28(–35) mm long, a perianth tube 12–20 mm long, shorter than the large upper tepals, and short filaments always included in the tube. It is most closely related to the southwestern Tanzanian G. oliganthus, which has somewhat larger flowers, yellow in color, generally has the leaves contemporaneous with the flowers, and always has short included filaments so characteristic of G. melleri. The flowers of G. oliganthus have a tube 20–30 mm long, beyond the normal range for G. melleri, but in other respects the flowers of the two species are similarly constructed. The occasional G. melleri that flowers out of season, or is grown in gardens, and has foliage leaves on the flowering stem is still recognizable as this species. Although the flowers of G. melleri are typically brick-red to orange, paler-colored forms occur. In southwestern Tanzania the flowers are a pale salmon-pink, and on the Biano Plateau in southern Katangain Congo, plants have pale pink to nearly white flowers (Schaijes 1956). Those plants may be confused with the local Shaban endemic, G. manikaensis, which has pure white flowers, rather smaller in size than those of G. melleri, but in G. manikaensis the foliage leaves are always present on the flowering stem at flowering time.

Although a particularly distinctive species, Gladiolus melleri is also sometimes be confused with G. dalenii subsp. andongensis, which it resembles in the absence of foliage leaves on the flowering stem and, at least by Gladiolus standards, a relatively large flower. G. melleri can, however, always be recognized by its shorter perianth tube, normally 12–20 mm long, and smaller tepals and bracts, the latter typically 17–20 mm long. The three upper tepals of G. melleri are more or less equal and about as long as the lowermost, and only the two lower lateral tepals are substantially smaller. In the smallest-flowered forms of G. dalenii the perianth tube is 25–35 mm long, the dorsal tepal is largest, 35–50 mm long, and the bracts are 35–45(–70) mm long. The dorsal tepal is always arched and hooded over the stamens, and the lower tepals of the salmon- to red-flowered forms are usually marked with yellow. Also, the filaments are well exserted from the upper part of the perianth tube, whereas in G. melleri they are always included. In G. melleri the dorsal tepal is barely arched and instead extends forward more or less horizontally. The differences are more easily seen in fresh material, but there is really no reason for the two to be confused. It has been regarded as a variety of G. dalenii, but although the two are obviously related, differences in flower shape and size, including the short, included filaments, make it essential to treat them as separate species.

The western African and Ethiopian Gladiolus roseolus, which also has foliage leaves produced on separate shoots after flowering, is very like G. melleri, but it has somewhat smaller flowers, white to deep pink in color, cataphylls that are typically downy-pubescent, although not always so, and the filaments are exserted from the tube 4–5 mm. G. melleri can also be confused with the southwestern tropical African G. benguellensis, but although this species has flowers of almost exactly the same shape, they are smaller, thus the upper tepals are 21–24 mm long, and the anthers are 7–8 mm long. G. benguellensis also has the foliage leaves borne on the flowering stem rather than on separate shoots, and smaller corms and distinctively darker cataphylls. Another distinction between G. melleri and G. benguellensis is the styles, well developed in G. melleri and reaching at least to the apex of the anthers with branches 5–6 mm long, but shorter in G. benguellensis, not overtopping the anthers and with branches 3–4 mm long.