Gladiolus aurantiacus Klatt

Plants 450-750 mm high. Corm depressed-globose, 25-35 mm diam.; tunics brittle-papery to membranous, decaying irregularly shaped fragments, with several cormlets around base. Stem erect, unbranched. Leaves of flowering stem 4 or 5, superposed, imbricate, blades usually shorter than sheaths or ± as long, lanceolate to sword-shaped, 6-15 mm wide, uppermost leaves sometimes entirely sheathing; foliage leaves 5 or 6, produced from separate shoots on same corm near end of flowering, ultimately reaching up to 600 mm, narrowly lanceolate, 10-15 mm wide, main vein thickened and raised, margins barely thickened. Spike straight and erect, 10-to 16-flowered; bracts pale green, outer (28-)32-45 mm long, inner shorter, notched apically. Flowers deep yellow, finely dotted or streaked irregularly with red or orange, sometimes so densely mottled as to appear orange, lower tepals clear yellow in basal 1/2, unscented; perianth tube narrowly and obliquely funnel-shaped, 44-70 mm long, slender and erect below for 25-33 mm, abruptly expanded into a wide cylindric and horizontal upper part 30-35 mm long; tepals lanceolate, unequal, dorsal largest, (26-)35-45 x ± 15-24 mm, extended ± horizontally over stamens, upper laterals directed forward below, curving outward distally, 25-42 x 14-25 mm, lower 3 tepals arching downward, 15-25 x (7-)12-16 mm, lower median slightly larger than laterals. Filaments 28-40 mm long, exserted 12-15 mm from tube; anthers 9-12 mm long, yellow to orange; pollen yellow. Style arching over stamens, dividing between base and middle of anthers, branches 4-6 mm long. Capsules ovoid-oblong, 3-lobed above and retuse, 18-25 mm long. Seeds ovate, ± 10 x 7-8 mm, broadly and evenly winged.