Gladiolus caeruleus, or is it?

This flower of which only the one poor photo exists, is thought to be Gladiolus caeruleus. To fit that identification the pale blue flower seen at the end of August in the Tinie Versfeld Wildflower Reserve nearly conforms. The "nearly" relates to the absence of speckles, only lines present on the lower two thirds of the lower three tepals, and all that on a cream background.

The most closely related species, both found in the area are G. recurvus that also has spots and lines on pearly grey to yellowish tepals and G. gracilis that has a pale blue flowering form apart from pink, grey or yellow ones, all also streaked as well as spotted.

For clear answers in separating related species, the forensic photography has to be a lot better than available here. A return visit next year may help if the plant is still there and blooming, but there are also the issues of intraspecies deviation and possible hybridisation to overcome. They remind that biology describes life instead of prescribing it; that life leads taxonomy instead of following it (Goldblatt and Manning, 1998).