Gladiolus aureus Baker

Plants 350-500 mm high, with villous cataphylls. Corm globose, 12-18 mm diam.; tunics leathery to woody, fragmenting into coarse woody fibres. Stem erect, flexed above sheathing parts of two upper leaves but becoming erect again, unbranched. Leaves 3, lower 2 basal, lowermost usually slightly exceeding spike, lower leaves villous, linear, 3.0-5.5 mm wide, several ribbed, margins lightly thickened, uppermost leaf inserted on upper 1/3 of stem, short and bract-like, usually channelled throughout, sparsely pubescent or glabrous. Spike ± erect, 3-to 8-flowered; bracts pale green or flushed dull red or brown, outer 15-22 mm long, inner slightly shorter or slightly longer, minutely notched apically. Flowers bright yellow, upper part of tube and base of tepals flushed red on fading, without contrasting markings, unscented; perianth tube 19-24 mm long, filiform below for 10-15 mm, ascending, barely exserted from bracts, abruptly expanded into a slightly flared, ± horizontal upper part; tepals obovate to elliptic, slightly unequal, dorsal 20-24 x 12-15 mm, lower 3 tepals joined to upper laterals for 3-4 mm, 20-22 x 9-12 mm. Filaments 9-12 mm long, reaching to mouth of tube or exserted up to 5 mm and enclosed by tepals; anthers 7.5-8.8 mm long, cream-coloured; pollen white. Style arching over stamens, dividing opposite or just beyond anther apices, branches ± 4 mm long. Capsules oblong, ± 18 mm long. Seeds oval, ± 9 x 7 mm, broadly and evenly winged.