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(Last Modified On 1/23/2017)
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Description:
Plants 550–1000 mm high or more. Corm 15–20 mm diam.; tunics firm to soft-membranous, fragmenting irregularly, red-brown. Leaves 5 to 7, mostly basal, linear to linear-lanceolate, (2–)5–14 mm wide, usually reaching to base of spike, sometimes slightly longer, upper 2 or 3 leaves inserted on stem and shorter that basal. Stem sometimes with 1, rarely 2, branches, (2–)4 mm diam. at spike base. Spike (3–)6- to 14-flowered; bracts green or more often flushed dark purple, especially those on lower part of spike, often very large, (18–)40–70 mm long, those on upper part of spike 15–50 mm. Flowers scarlet, with throat and sometimes base of lower 3 tepals yellow, tube externally red above, bright green below, often whitish or red on drying; perianth tube (18–)30–40 mm long, lower part erect, slender and cylindric, enclosed in bracts, (7–)15–20 mm long, fairly abruptly expanded into horizontal, cylindrical upper part (10–)15–20 mm long, (3.5–)5–7 mm diam.; tepals subequal, or dorsal slightly longer, ovate, (12–)26–35 x (4–)12–14 mm, dorsal extended horizontally, other tepals spreading at more or less right angles to tube. Filaments (12–)18–25 mm long, exserted for (4–)10–12 mm from tube, extended horizontally; anthers (5–)10–12 mm long, yellow. Ovary (4–)6–7 mm long; style usually exceeding anthers and dividing beyond them (in small-flowered plants sometimes dividing opposite anthers), branches 3.5–5 mm long. Capsules obovate to ellipsoid, (12–)25–30 mm long; seeds (4–)6–8 x 3–6 mm, the wing broad. Chromosome number 2n = 30. Flowering time: mostly August to October but also throughout the year; small-flowered plants mostly September to November.
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Distribution and ecology:
restricted to the higher mountains of Kenya and northern Tanzania, in Kenya common on Mt. Kenya, in the Aberdare Mtns, and in the Cherangani Hills, all of which reach above 3000 m; in Tanzania on Kilimanjaro, Mt. Meru, Loolmalasin Peak, and Mt. Hanang, all also 3000 m or higher, and the slightly lower Ngorongoro Crater; nearly all collections are from above 3000 m but occasionally as low as 2500 m, in open slopes in the heath (Ericaceae) zone above the forest, sometimes in lava rubble, and in glades in juniper forest at lower elevations. Smaller-flowered plants, sometimes treated as variety minor, are recorded only from the Kilimanjaro Massif in Tanzania and the Aberdare Mountains in central Kenya, where they occur in similar habitats. The small size may be related to local or seasonal conditions. Available evidence does not support their recognition as a separate taxon.
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Diagnosis:
flowers of the typical Gladiolus watsonioides bear a remarkable resemblance to those of some southern African species referred in the past to the genus Homoglossum (a minor segregate of Gladiolus), and also to some species of Watsonia, in the deep red color and long perianth tube with a slender lower part and a wide cylindrical upper part. Its several broad, plane leaves and firm-membranous corm tunics are quite different, and there can be no doubt that they are not closely related. The similarity of their flowers is due to convergence, presumably for bird pollination. Although sometimes formally recognized, either as a separate species, Antholyza gracilis, or Gladiolus watsonioides var. minor, the few small-flowered and short-bracted plants collected on the Aberdare Mountains and on Kilimanjaro, are included here in G. watsonioides. Those plants have narrow leaves, flowers no more than 32–38 mm long, and tepals 10–14 mm long. This is smaller by more than half than the dimensions of the smallest-flowered specimens of typical G. watsonioides, in which the tepals are 30–35 mm long and the whole flower 65–75 mm long. Accommodation of so great a range of perianth size in a single species is unusual, especially as there is no evidence of clinal variation in G. watsonioides, or of a continuous range of variation between the larger- and smaller-flowered variants. Provisionally, the small-flowered plants are regarded as depauperate as a result of unusual local seasonal or soil conditions. Their true significance remains to be more fully investigated.
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