Gladiolus L.
Summer-green perennial. Corm globose; tunic fibrous, brown. Leaves often ensiform, equitant. Spike loose, unilateral or distichous. Flowers showy, each with 2 large, herbaceous, lanceolate, green spathe-valves (inner valve bifid); tube funnel-shaped, gradually dilated, curved; iobes usually unequal, 3 upper larger. Stamens asymmetric. Style-branches entire. Capsule oblong, globose to cylindrical. Seeds many. Spp. c. 180 of Europe, Asia, tropical and S. Africa. Adventive spp. 2.
Key
Cheeseman recorded Gladiolus in T.N.Z.I. 15, 1883, 293 as " . . . a frequent garden escape" and Allan (Handbk Nat. Fl. N.Z. 1940, 305) notes "Various garden gladioli escape".
Gladiolus byzantinus Miller, a European sp. which has reddish-purple flowers with a narrow white mark on the lower perianth-lobe, was recorded by Kirk for the Waikato district (T.N.Z.I.2. 1870. 143) but no specimens have been seen.
Large-flowered, modern hybrid gladioli are discarded from gardens from time to time and may persist in waste places e.g.CHR 196636, Broadfields, Canterbury, waste land - site of closed rubbish pit, A. J. Healy 69/306, 14.3.1969. Other specimens collected growing wild which have red flowers with white marking on the lower lobes may be G. × cardinalis hybrids e.g.CHR 74094, Bolton St Cemetery, Wellington, grass, R. Mason 1470, 9.12.1952; andCHR 276321, Mission Station, Waimate North, Bay of Islands Co., in grassy area beside church, S. J. and E. J. Astridge, 27.11.1974.
