Gladiolus permeabilis subsp. permeabilis flower

This Gladiolus permeabilis subsp. permeabilis flower has some ornately curving tepals, especially towards their elongated tips. There is no uniformity to these curves or contortions.

The lower three tepals have yellow blotches on their lower parts to beyond halfway up. All the tepals have brown line markings, more concentrated to the central tepal axis upon the upper three. These brown markings may also be mauve, even pink in this subspecies and not so linear. Each tepal has a conspicuously wider midsection.

The stamens are well camouflaged in picture inside the dorsal tepal. Their pale brown anthers are oblong. Three white branches of the stigma are visible above the anthers.

Flowering happens in late winter and spring, earlier than for subsp. edulis that grows mainly in summer rainfall regions. This plant was found in mid-August near Oudtshoorn (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; www.pacificbulbsociety.org).