Tritonia gladiolaris

Tritonia gladiolaris, previously T. linearis is commonly known as the pencilled tritonia or lined tritonia and in Afrikaans as the bergkatjietee (mountain kitten tea). The species resembles T. disticha, the red tritonia, but for its paler yellow flowers covered in dark veins resembling pencil lines.

This is a cormous perennial growing annual leaves and a flower stem that reaches heights from 20 cm to 80 cm. The ovoid corm covered in fine tunic fibres reaches 2 cm in diameter.

The species distribution ranges from the Little Karoo through the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho at elevations from the coast to 2400 m. This plant was seen near Oudtshoorn in August.

The habitat is mainly summer rainfall grassland. The plant is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Pooley, 1998; Manning, 2009; www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).