Gladiolus venustus

Gladiolus venustus, in Afrikaans called perskalkoentjie (little purple turkey—if ever there could be such a thing!), is a perennial geophyte growing to heights between 20 cm and 60 cm.

The flowers are pink or blue-purple on the upper parts of the tepals. Low down in the two-lipped corolla the lance-shaped, unequal tepals are creamy yellow in their broadest parts with yellow patches on the lower ones. The tepals attenuate to their tips, narrow into channelled claws at the base, the margins variably wavy.

Blooming happens late winter to mid-spring. The photograph was taken near Clanwilliam in August.

The species distribution is in the southwest of the Northern Cape on the Bokkeveld Plateau near Nieuwoudtville and the Western Cape to the Cederberg, the Tanqua Karoo and the west of the Little Karoo.

The habitat of this Gladiolus is semi-arid clayey, sandstone and shale-derived slopes among scrub and renosterveld. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

The plant resembles G. scullyi, a species with slightly duller corolla and partly overlapping distribution (Manning, 2009; Glodblatt and Manning, 1998; www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).