Published In:
The Gardeners' Chronicle: a weekly illustrated journal of horticulture and allied subjects. ser. 3 92: 107. 1932. ( Gard. Chron., ser. 3) 
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(Last Modified On 1/26/2017)
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Acceptance
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Accepted
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(Last Modified On 1/26/2017)
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Description:
Plants 300–650 mm high. Corm 15–22 mm diam.; tunics firm to softly membranous, fragmenting irregularly, sometimes becoming subfibrous, dark red-brown. Leaves 4 to 8, lower 3 to 5 basal, narrowly lanceolate, reaching at least to base of spike, sometimes slightly exceeding it, 5–12 mm wide, relatively soft-textured and without thickened margins or main veins. Stem erect or inclined, unbranched, 3–4 mm diam. at spike base. Spike often inclined, 3- to 5-flowered; bracts green, outer 50–80(–100) mm long, inner shorter, concealed by outer. Flowers white, with a prominent dark purple streak in midline of lower 3 or all tepals, sweetly scented, more strongly in evenings; perianth tube cylindric and straight, slightly wider near throat, (90–)120–150 mm long; tepals more or less equal, lanceolate, 35–45 x 17–22 mm wide. Filaments exserted for 10–15 mm; anthers c. 15 mm long, with a rigid filiform apiculus 2–4 mm long. Ovary 6–8 mm long, style arching over stamens, dividing beyond anthers, branches c. 5 mm long, much expanded in upper 1/2. Capsules oblong-ellipsoid, 20–25 mm long; seeds c. 8 x 5 mm, broadly winged. Chromosome number 2n = 30. Flowering time: mostly January to March in Tanzania and Malawi, July to September in Ethiopia.
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Country:
Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia
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Distribution and ecology:
scattered from northeastern Africa southward through Tanzania, Malawi and central Mozambique, most common in northern Ethiopia and also well known in the southern half of Malawi, but the record is poor between the northern and southern ends of the range; there are no records from either southern Ethiopia or Kenya, where there are suitable habitats for the plant, and the few collections from Tanzania are from the Mufindi District and farther south near Songea. The Mozambique record is from near Domué, not far from central Malawi, where it seems to be common in the mountains around Dedza, only a short distance from Mozambique. Despite the unusual distribution pattern there are no differences between the Malawian and Ethiopian plants. G. murielae favors rocky partly shaded sites, growing on cliffs and in rocky outcrops where the soil is thin and there are few other plants.
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Diagnosis:
tall stature and long-tubed white flowers splashed with dark purple on the lower tepals and well-developed soft-textured leaves readily distinguish Gladilus murielae from most species of tropical African Gladiolus, including all those from the eastern half of the continent. Western tropical African G. aequinoctialis appears on morphological grounds to be most closely related to G. murielae, and without knowledge of the source of plants the two are often difficult to separate. Both have large white flowers with a tube usually 12–15 cm long, elliptic tepals 35–45 mm long, the lower marked with dark purple, and long anthers with prominent apiculate appendages. Marais (1973) distinguished the two on the basis of leaf texture, softer in G. murielae, and length of the anther apiculi, 4–5 mm long in G. murielae compared with 2–3 mm in G. aequinoctialis. In the main, these criteria work and it seems useful to maintain the two as separate species. Their relationship is, however, very close. In G. murielae the soft leaves generally have only one pair of secondary veins in addition to the lightly raised midrib; the remaining veins are all very fine. G. aequinoctialis has firmer-textured leaves, and the secondary pairs of veins are well developed. In cultivation, the two flower at different times of the year, G. murielae in the summer and G. aequinoctialis in the late autumn.
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