Gladiolus permeabilis D.Delaroche

Plants 150-600 mm high. Corm globose to conic, 8-12 mm diam.; tunics medium to coarsely fibrous. Stem usually erect, flexed outward above sheath of third leaf, simple or 1-or 2(4)-branched. Leaves usually 4 to 7, more in highly branched plants, lower 4 to 6 basal in loose fan, usually reaching at least to middle or shortly exceeding spike, linear or subsucculent and oval in section, 1.0-2.0(-3.5) mm wide, rigid, central area moderately thickened, margins sometimes lightly thickened, cauline leaves shorter, often without blade, upper either sheathing below or diverging from base. Spike inclined, lightly flexuose, 4-to 8-flowered; bracts pale greyish green sometimes flushed purplish, often dry and pale near apices, outer (7-)12-18(-24) mm long, inner shorter to almost as long, acute or minutely forked. Flowers whitish to greenish cream-coloured, dull blue-grey, dull purple, or yellow-brown, upper tepals or at least upper laterals each with brown to purplish longitudinal median stripe, lower tepals and throat streaked reddish to purplish, limbs usually yellow in lower 1/2 often edged distally with darker colour, often strongly sweet-scented or scentless; perianth tube obliquely funnel-shaped, 9-13(-15) mm long, slender lower part 7-10 mm long; tepals narrowed below into claws and ± spade-shaped, attenuate, sometimes extremely so, dorsal largest, (16-)20-33 x 10-15 mm, inclined over stamens, spreading distally, upper laterals arching outward distally, 16-23 x 7-8 mm, windowed between bases of dorsal and upper lateral tepals, lower 3 tepals joined to upper laterals for 2-5 mm and together for 3-6 mm with small thickened knobs at sinuses, free parts 14-16 x 6-8 mm, narrowed below into claws 2-4 mm long, abruptly flexed downward into a broader limb. Filaments 12-16 mm long, exserted 8-13 mm from tube; anthers 5-9 mm long, dull cream-coloured to grey-purple; pollen whitish. Style arching over stamens, dividing between base and apex of anthers, branches 1.5-4.0 mm long. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, (6-)9-16 x 5-6 mm. Seeds oval, 4-6 x 3-4 mm, broadly and sometimes unevenly winged.