Gladiolus undulatus undulating corolla

Gladiolus undulatus flowers are known for the marked undulations of their tepals. Undulatus is Latin for undulating, unda being a wave. In picture the wavy more than crinkled feature of the flower is restricted to the upper three tepals.

The red-marked lower three tepals on this plant have straight margins or nearly so. The curving out and folding in are shared among all six tepals, while the dorsal one attempts an S-curve as drawn by an illiterate (Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005).