Gladiolus natalensis Reinw. ex Hook.f.
Corm ± 5 cm diam., ± flattened, with numerous cormils at base. Stems ± 1.5 m high. Leaves ± 3 cm wide, stiff. Flowers ± 10 cm long, ± 7 cm diam., to 10 or more in a unilateral spike, yellow, reddening from bud to fully open; outer spathe-valves ± = perianth-tube; tube ± 5 cm long, curved; upper lobes ± 5 × 3 cm, broadly obovate, obtuse, red; lower lobes slightly shorter and much narrower, yellow, broad, red zone at apex. Anthers yellow. Capsule oblong, ± ½ length of spathe-valves. Seeds broadly winged.
N. Auckland - Tiritiri Id in Hauraki Gulf; Gisborne - near Opotiki.
(Africa, Arabia)
First record: Esler 1978: 223.
First collection: "Tiritiri Id, Hauraki Gulf, in grassland being invaded by bracken," A. E. Esler 4889, 29.10.1975 (CHR 281101).
FL. 10-11.
More generally known throughout the world as G. psittacinus Hook. a later synonym of G. natalensis.
It may have been G. natalensis to which Sladden referred (N.Z. J. Sci. Tech. 8, 1926, 203) as growing on Tuhua or Mayor Island - "while the scarlet Gladiolus, . . . cover large patches about the sites of the old Maori settlements".
