The pictures below are of Gladiolus monticola, photographed today. It's quite a small species, about 30cm tall. It's been in flower since mid July, in a glasshouse which we keep under Mediterranean conditions here in the UK. The flower spikes came up while the 3-litre long tom pot was still completely dry for the plants' summer dormancy. The leaves don't appear until the flowers are over.
In the wild it seems to be confined to rocky sandstone slopes of Table Mountain and Devil's Peak in the winter-rainfall part of South Africa, where it is said to be quite common. It flowers early there too, from midsummer on, and is evidently pollinated by one of the large-veined flies (the fairly long-tongued Proscoeca nitidula). The flowers have no scent.
The second picture is a blow-up of part of the top picture, to show on one flower the pink guide marks on the three lower tepals. In some forms of the species the whole flower is a lot pinker, unlike the soft apricot of my plants.
I grew my plants from seed, sown in 2006. This is the first year they have flowered.
