Gladiolus leptosiphon young flower

Gladiolus leptosiphon flowers are unscented. The soft, pale green bracts around the corolla bases tend to become dry. The inner bract is slightly smaller, both are fork-tipped.

The unequal tepals are lance-shaped, the upper ones curving back in fully open flowers. The filaments of the exserted stamens are about 1 cm long, the oblong anthers 8 mm long. The ovary is inferior in position, oblong in shape, up to 4 mm long. The three style branches are positioned over the anthers.

The flowers are pollinated by long-tongued flies.

After flowering, the ovary swells, the fruit capsule becoming 15 mm long, obovoid to ellipsoid in shape (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; iNaturalist).