Gladiolus orchidiflorus flower

The fragrant flower of Gladiolus orchidiflorus is short-tubed and two-lipped. Flower colour is grey-green and pale brown to dull purple and yellow.

The dorsal tepal is pale on its inner surface in picture, long and spoon-shaped with the style and stamens arching below it. The upper lateral tepals are pale and veined with a faint dark stripe down the centre of each. They are shorter and broader than the dorsal and recurve.

The lower three tepals have bright yellow, sometimes greenish transversal bands above halfway to the tip, ending in a narrower dark purple jagged stripe near the tip. The lower laterals are positioned on the central one that is bigger with less purple.

A flower is about 2,5 cm in diameter (Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Le Roux, et al, 2005; iNaturalist).