Gladiolus watermeyeri shiny, lowered dorsal tepal

The bent-down outside surface of the Gladiolus watermeyeri dorsal tepal is silvery shiny, covered in dull purple veins. Above it is the furled, green upper part of a floral bract, also veined and bending in. The pointed upper lateral tepals spread to the sides, the biggest of the tepals here. They are conspicuously striped dark red down the centre with lesser veins angled up and down.

Below the dorsal tepal is first the style ending in three diverging, delicate branches. The style is here blackish purple where it branches, white on its thickened branch tips where the stigmas must be. Below that hang the not so delicate, oblong, parallel anthers. All these floral parts arch down over the three gold to olive lower tepals, angled in the same direction as if in support (Manning, 2007; Goldblatt and Manning, 1998; iNaturalist).