Gladiolus patersoniae

Gladiolus patersoniae, the bluebell or in Afrikaans bakpypie (little baking pipe), is a cormous perennial that grows to 50 cm.The globose corm is 2 cm in diameter. Its tunic is hard and coarse, the fibres becoming thickened.

The plant annually produces three thin, quill-like, cylindrical leaves, two of which are basal, usually sheathing the stem near the base. The lowest one is longest, equalling or exseeding the inflorescence slightly. It is usually straight, erect and grooved. The second leaf sheathes the stem for much or all of its length, shorter than the stem. The third leaf sheathes even more or is scale-like.

The species occurs in the Western Cape from Worcester but mainly in the Little Karoo to the Eastern Cape as far as Uitenhage.

The habitat of the bluebell is montane fynbos, often on exposed rocky slopes in soil derived from sandstone. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

The flower resembles that of G. inflatus of the Western Cape, but has a shorter corolla tube and is fragrantly scented (Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Manning, 2009; www.pacificbulbsociety.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).