Gladiolus oppositiflorus Herb.

Plants (400-)600-1600 mm high, with velvety cataphylls. Corm depressed-globose, 30-40 mm diam.; tunics firm-papery to leathery, fragmenting irregularly but usually extending upward a short distance as coarse fibrous collar around base of stem. Stem erect and straight, often sparsely pubescent, unbranched. Leaves usually 7 or 8, mostly basal, sometimes forming pseudostem, reaching at least to base of spike or sometimes shortly exceeding it, imbricate and concealing lower 2/3 of stem, narrowly sword-shaped to nearly linear, 12-18(-24) mm wide, firm to rigid, main vein and margins strongly thickened, usually notably velvety between veins, uppermost leaf inserted in middle of stem, shorter. Spike straight and erect, weakly or fully 2-ranked, 7-to 15(26)-flowered; bracts green, firm-textured, attenuate, sometimes sparsely pubescent to velvety below, (27-)32-50(-62) mm long, inner slightly shorter, with margins united below and sheathing base of tube, forked into attenuate cusps 2-4 mm long. Flowers salmon-to pale pink or mauve, lower 3 tepals paler in midline and with reddish to purple median streak in lower 1/2, tube red or purple in throat and sometimes on reverse, unscented; perianth tube narrow and curving outward, expanded slightly near apex, (28-)40-50(-55) mm long; tepals lanceolate-elliptic, margins undulate, upper 3 largest, (37-)45-60 mm long, dorsal 20-25(-30) mm wide, arching over stamens, upper laterals curving outward in distal 1/2 when fully open, lower 3 tepals united for 3-4 mm, laterals shorter than lower median, ± 13 mm wide, arching downward distally. Filaments 15-17(-20) mm long, exserted 6-10 mm from tube; anthers ± 11 mm long, reaching to ± middle of dorsal tepal, pale mauve; pollen cream-coloured. Style arching over stamens, dividing 2-4 mm beyond anther apices, branches 6-7 mm long. Capsules narrowly obovoid-oblong, 3-lobed above, truncate to retuse, 20-25 mm long. Seeds ovate, ± 6 x 4 mm, broadly and evenly winged.