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!Gladiolus abyssinicus (Brongn. ex Lemaire) Goldblatt & M.P. de Vos 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 du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Section B, Adansonia. sér. 4, Botanique Phytochimie 11: 425. 1989. (Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat., B, Adansonia, sér. 4) Name publication detailView in Botanicus
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 1/24/2017)
Acceptance : Accepted
Taxon Profile     (Last Modified On 1/30/2017)
Description: Plants 450–650 mm high. Corm 15–25 mm diam.; tunics soft-membranous, breaking irregularly into thin strips, rarely becoming almost fibrous, straw-colored, often with numerous small cormlets concealed around the base. Leaves 5 or 6, lower 4 or 5 more or less basal and largest, upper 1 or 2 cauline and reduced, narrowly lanceolate to nearly linear, plane, reaching at least to base of spike, sometimes slightly exceeding it, 7–15 mm wide, fairly firm-textured but margins and main veins not thickened. Stem sometimes with one branch, usually 3–4 mm diam. at spike base. Spike 8- to 12-flowered; bracts usually very large, firm, green or more often flushed red above or almost entirely, (35–)45–60(–70) mm long, outer twisted to lie between axis and flower, glossy within, inner about 1/2 as long or less. Flowers red on upper 3 tepals, greenish and tipped with yellow on lower, throat and tube yellowish, in life sometimes only the upper tepals exposed; perianth tube 27–32 mm long, lower part slender and erect, c. 15 mm long, expanding and gradually curved ouward into a cylindrical, more or less horizontal upper part, 12–16 mm long; tepals very unequal, dorsal largest, extended nearly horizontally, (20–)24–35(–40) z up to 14 mm, upper laterals directed forward, lanceolate, 12–20 x 12 mm, lower tepals reduced, laterals lanceolate, 8–15 mm long, lowermost nearly linear, 6–12 mm long. Filaments 25–30 mm long, exserted for up to 15 mm; anthers 8–12 mm long. Ovary c. 5 mm long; style dividing near to or slightly beyond anther apices, branches c. 4 mm long, much expanded in upper 1/2. Capsules obovoid-ellipsoid, 10–12 mm long; seeds angular with reduced winglike extensions at one or both ends, c. 4 mm long. Flowering time: August to October in Ethiopia, following the rainy season of July to November; March and April in Arabia, following the winter rains of November to February.
Country: Ethiopia
Additional countries outside Sub-Sahara Africa: Saudi Arabia
Distribution and ecology: centered in the highlands of central Ethiopia, where it extends from the western edge of the Rift Valley in Shoa Province through Welo, Gojam, and Tigre, to the Semien Mtns of northern Gonder, with outlying populations in eastern Ethiopia and western Saudi Arabia. In eastern Ethiopia, records are from the Gara Mullata Mtns in Harerge Province. There are no reports of G. abyssinicus from the southern extension of the western Arabian escarpment in western Yemen, although its presence there would not be surprising. Plants favor damp rocky sites where the ground remains wet for a longer time than in the open.
Diagnosis: strongly zygomorphic flower with the dorsal tepal about twice as long as the upper lateral tepals and the lower three tepals reduced to short cusps, in combination with the long floral bracts, distinguish Gladiolus abyssinicus from most other species of the genus. Most closely related to G. abyssinicus and easily confused with it is G. schweinfurthii. The two have similarly shaped flowers, much smaller in the latter. Flowers vary considerably in size and may be 70–80 mm long in robust plants from the north of its range but most collections from Shoa to the south have flowers 50-60 mm long. Depauperate plants or those with the flowers not fully open may appear even smaller, 40–50 mm long, and then resemble those of the related G. schweinfurthii. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the smaller-flowered plants of G. abyssinicus from G. schweinfurthii, and it is possible that the two are not separable at species rank. Most collections that can confidently be referred to G. schweinfurthii are from relatively low elevations either in Eritrea or Somalia, below 2000 m, and have small flowers 25–36 mm long, upper tepals 12–18(–22) mm long and floral bracts 18–24(–28) mm long. Typical G. abyssinicus usually occurs above 2000 m, either in the Ethiopian highlands or in western Saudi Arabia, and has flowers at least 40 mm long, upper tepals 20–24 mm long, and bracts 35–70 mm long. Additional field and laboratory study is required before the status of G. schweinfurthii can be settled.

 
 
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