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(Last Modified On 12/23/2016)
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Acceptance
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Synonym
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(Last Modified On 1/23/2017)
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Description:
Plants 800–1050 mm high, with grren to purple cataphylls. Corms 15–22 mm diam.; tunics of matted fibers, dark brown. Leaves occasionally 3, usually 4 or 5, lower 2 to 4 basal and largest, narrowly lanceolate, (6–)8–15 mm wide, reaching to about base of spike; upper 1 or 2 cauline, witth blades usually shorter than sheaths, uppermost of these almost entirely sheathing. Stem erect, unbranched, 3–3.5 mm diam. at spike base, sometimes sheathed almost to first flower, 2–4 mm diam. at spike base. Spike (2–)4- to 8(–10)-flowered; bracts green, outer (35–)40–60 m long, inner 1/2 to 2/3 as long as outer, shortly forked apically. Flowers cream to yellowish green, sometimes pink to reddish, or flushed orange, lower three tepals often each with a dark purple median streak; perianth tube (20–)35–45 mm long, cylindric below, widening toward apex; tepals broadly or narrowly lanceolate, upper 3 largest, 30–45 x 18–24 mm, lowermost nearly as long as upper, lower laterals substantially smaller. Filaments 22–24 mm long, exserted 10–14 mm from tube; anthers 8–11 mm long, acute, not apiculate, yellow. Ovary c. 5 mm long; style arched over stamens, dividing just below anther apices, branches 4–7 mm long, ultimately exceeding anthers. Capsules obovoid, 15–20 mm long; seeds more or less oblong, 6–7 x c. 4 mm. Flowering time: mainly mid April to mid June.
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Country:
Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia
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Distribution and ecology:
restricted to eastern Africa, where it ranges from the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania in the south, across Kenya to southern and eastern Ethiopia, most in common there in Sidamo, Bale, and Harerge Provinces, There are relatively few records of the species from Kenya, but it has been recorded from both Mt. Kulal and Mt. Marsabit, isolated massifs in the dry north of the country, as well as in the central Kenyan highlands and the only record from Tanzania is the type, but matching plants from Kenya and eastern Ethiopia in all important respects; in highlands, most often above 1000 m, in open grassland or savanna.
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Diagnosis:
one of the larger-flowered species of the genus, Gladiolus pauciflorus can be recognized by its robust form and fairly large flowers, with a perianth tube 35–40(–45) mm long and tube of about the same length. The flowers are typically pale-colored, either cream or yellowish green, often with a dark purple stripe along the midline of the lower three tepals. The lowermost tepal is usually about a long as the upper or only slightly shorter, but the lower laterals are substantially shorter than the upper tepals. The species as understood here is fairly variable. Plants from Mt. Kulal in northern Kenya and collections from Sidamo Province, Ethiopia, appear to have either pink (or red now faded to pink) flowers. The flowers of most other collections from Ethiopia are cream, but they may also be flushed with orange or pale yellow throughout in the same populations. The dark median streak on the lower tepals is most pronounced in Ethiopian populations, especially those from Bale Province. One population from Sidamois especially puzzling as the flowers are described as rose with the lower laterals yellow with blackish streaks, and these have the shortest perianth tubes of all specimens assigned to the species, 25–30 mm long. I considered the possibility that they represent a separate species, but they seem connected by a series of intermediates from the same area and until more is known about them it seems prudent to assume they are merely depauperate G. pauciflorus. These plants are rather slender and also have only one or two flowers per spike. Plants from other populations may have five to seven or even 10 flowers per spike, but this character is one that is normally very variable and not taxonomically significant.
Also included here provisionally is a pink-flowered plant from Mt. Lorosuk in Uganda, the single collection comprising fairly short plants, c. 200 mm high, with the long, rather broad perianth tube typical of Gladiolus pauciflorus, but the flowers themselves are rather small, as are the bracts, 25-30 mm long, and the narrow leaves, c. 2 mm wide. The specimens lack corms that may provide a clue to their correct identity. Until more specimens of this Ugandan plant come to light it seems best to place it in G. pauciflorus, but there remains the possibility that this is a new species.
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