Gladiolus saccatus flowers

The flowers of Gladiolus saccatus, in Afrikaans the suikerkannetjie (little sugar container), are bright red and narrowly tubular. The common name suggests much nectar. The flowers are pollinated by birds, particularly the malachite sunbird that feed on the nectar. 

The long, spoon-shaped upper tepal forms a cylindrical tube with the small, lower tepals that have some green and yellow colouring. The tube protects the stamens that have oblong, orange anthers shielded below the bowl at the upper tepal tip. This red tube emerges near its base from a conspicuously pointed grey bract folded around the base of the corolla tube.

The distinctively asymmetrical flower superficially resembles G. cunonius, another narrow-flowered red Gladiolus that occurs in a non-overlapping distribution area in the south along the coast. The greyish, narrowly lanceolate leaves grow from the perennial corm in a fan shape.

Blooming comes at the end of winter, shortly after the rainy season. This flower was found near Springbok during August (Manning, 2009; Goldblatt, et al, 1998).