Gladiolus maculatus

Gladiolus maculatus, commonly known as the brown Afrikaner, is a slender perennial growing from a globose corm and reaching heights from 30 cm to 60 cm. The corm is from 1 cm to 2 cm in diameter, covered in a papery tunic that decays from below into vertical fibres.

Apart from the normal leaves there are short, membranous cataphylls present. These are small, modified pale green or purple leaflets additional to the true leaves (or euphylls). Cataphylls perform specialised functions for the plant, while photosynthesis is mainly left to the longer, true leaves.

There are three or four of these narrow, leathery, “true” leaves. Two are basal, the others progressively smaller-bladed stem leaves. The lowest leaf sheathes the stem from the base to midway, its tip usually lower than the flower spike. The leaf blades are fleshy, margins and midrib not raised or thickened in this species. The leaves are usually not seen when there are flowers.

The species distribution ranges coastally from the Cape Peninsula to Grahamstown, now Makhanda, in the Eastern Cape. The inland reach of G. maculatus is wider in the west of the Western Cape.

The habitat is clayey slopes in renosterveld, the plants growing in heavy as well as lighter shale-derived or sandstone soils. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; Mustart, et al, 1997; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).