Tropicos | Name - !Gladiolus laxiflorus Baker

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Iridaceae in sub-Saharan Africa

African Iridaceae > Iridaceae > Gladiolus > Gladiolus laxiflorus

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!Gladiolus laxiflorus Baker

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Project Name Data (Last Modified On 1/11/2017)

Acceptance : Accepted

Taxon Profile (Last Modified On 1/11/2017)

Description: Plants (200–)400–700 mm high, with cataphylls flushed purple and lightly pubescent. Corm 25–30 mm diam., depressed-globose, usually persisting for some years, usually dark red; tunics coriaceous to somewhat membranous, fragmenting irregularly. Leaves (of flowering stem) 3 to 5, lower 2 to 4 basal, with blades sometimes very short, linear to narrowly lanceolate or falcate, 4–6 mm wide, often emergent and short at start of flowering, ultimately longest to 350 mm, usually lightly pubescent, especially on sheaths; margins and main veins moderately thickened, upper 1 to 3 leaves largely to entirely sheathing and glabrous; longer leaves sometimes produced after flowering from separate shoots. Stem often 1- to 2-branched, occasionally simple, sometimes more than one stem from corm, branching often subdivaricate but main axis always thicker, c. 4 mm diam. at spike base. Spike 6- to 9(–16)-flowered, lateral spikes with fewer flowers; bracts green below, becoming more or less membranous above or dry at anthesis, 10–15(–20) mm long, inner usually slightly longer than outer. Flowers purple to pinkish, without markings or with 1 or all of lower tepals with a small yellow mark in distal half; perianth tube expanding gradually from base to apex, curving outward above, 10–17 mm long; tepals nearly equal, or unequal with upper 2 larger than lower, upper 3 ascending, lower descending, lanceolate, narrowed below, 30–35 x 13–15 mm wide (poorly pressed flowers may shrink up to 50% of original size). Filaments c. 20 mm long, arcuate, exserted 12–15 mm from tube; anthers 6–8 mm long, yellow. Ovary 4–5 mm long; style arched over stamens, dividing beyond anther apices, branches c. 3 mm long, much expanded apically. Capsules 15–22 mm long; seeds broadly winged, 8 x 6 mm, light brown. Chromosome number 2n = 30. Flowering time: mostly October and November, sometimes in September, and in late December when the rainy season late.

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

Distribution and ecology: widespread across southern tropical Africa, from across Angola, Zambia, and the provinces of Shaba and Kasai in Zaire, to western and southern Tanzania and northern Malawi; in wet habitats such as marshes, dambos (poorly drained grassland along watercourses), and stream banks, where it flowers toward the end of the dry season, mainly October and November, or at the beginning of the wet season.

Diagnosis: unmistakable when alive Gladiolus laxiflorus has large pink flowers subtended by unusually short floral bracts. The tepals are usually subequal and spread outward from close to the base. The stems are frequently branched, and the fairly short and broad leaves are pubescent, although sometimes sparsely so. Poorly preserved specimens with the flowers distorted and shrunk to half their size may be confused with G. unguiculatus. The latter is distinguished by the reduced and entirely glabrous leaves on the flowering stem, and the smaller flowers with dark spade-shaped markings on the lower lateral tepals. At the time of flowering, the leaves of G. laxiflorus are sometimes very short or barely developed, especially on stalks produced very early in the season. Possibly, these leaves enlarge later. Sometimes separate leafy shoots are also produced toward the end of the flowering season.