The annual new growth of Gladiolus permeabilis subsp. edulis comes from a globose corm covered in a tunic of brown netted fibres. The often slender plant may reach 60 cm.
The plant usually grows about six sword-like leaves, slightly thicker along the central section of the leaf and a flower spike with up to 15 individual flowers.
The subspecies distribution is widespread across South Africa in all nine provinces, absent from the west of the Northern Cape and the far west of the Western Cape, but occurring in Zimbabwe and Eswatini.
The habitat is diverse, including karoid scrub, renosterveld, succulent karoo and more. The plant is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.
What the subspecies name edulis (Latin word for edible) refers to is unknown. Maybe some mammals dig up and eat the corms (Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; www.pacificbulbsociety.com; www.bioone.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).