Gladiolus varius flowers

    Gladiolus varius flowers
    Author: Ivan Lätti
    Photographer: Judd Kirkel Welwitch

    The large, pink Gladiolus varius flower has an obliquely funnel-shaped perianth tube of up to 5 cm long. The dorsal tepal is often largest, forming a hood over the stamens and the three-branched style tip. The lower three tepals may have dark purple median streaks and are sometimes paler in their lower halves; not much of that in evidence in the photo.

    The anthers are about 8 mm long. The inferior ovary is obovoid, the style branches about 6 mm long (Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; iNaturalist; JSTOR).

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