Gladiolus venustus blue-purple and pale

The pale purplish blue tepals of Gladiolus venustus are oblong in short sections near their tips. The three tepals of the upper lip are erect, the other three forward and down in the lower lip.

The corolla base is white, apart from some faint yellow near the base of the lower tepals, folded or pinched at their back ends. Three dull, oblong anthers are visible against the white part of the dorsal tepal.

The two unequal bracts around the base of the bud in picture are whitish, not easily spotted against the corolla base (Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; Manning, 2007).