Gladiolus varius

Gladiolus varius is a cormous perennial reaching heights from 45 cm to 70 cm, often growing in small clumps. The globose to flattened corm is covered in several cartilaginous, brown layers that become fibrous with age.

The specific name, varius, is a Latin word meaning diverse, variable or various, referring to the plant’s variable appearance in the days when G. hollandii still formed part of the species.

The distribution of the species is in a part of Mpumalanga and beyond the border in southern Mozambique.

The habitat is exposed rocky grass ridges of the eastern escarpment, the corms often wedged among rocks. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; iNaturalist; JSTOR; http://redlist.sanbi.org).