Bobartia gladiata subsp. gladiata greyish leaves

The longest leaves of these Bobartia gladiata subsp. gladiata plants reached roughly the same height as their flowers. The photo was taken in October next to the N2 Highway below Sir Lowry’s Pass. Not very tall, they are exposed on land still bare after the last veld fire. The leaves are grey-green here. They become up to 4 mm wide.

Only three of the 14 Bobartia species have narrow, sword-shaped leaves; the other 11 all have terete or cylindrical ones. Only two of those with sword-shaped leaves have yellow flowers; B. lilacina has lilac flowers. The other species with sword-shaped leaves and yellow flowers, B. paniculata, is found on the Kammanassie Mountains in the eastern Little Karoo.

The shiny, ovoid to top-shaped green fruit capsules visible here have rings around their tips. The capsules assume a red-brown colour as they ripen (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iSpot; Wikipedia).