Gladiolus meridionalis shows its different colour forms

Using flower colour for identifying plants can be quite confusing. I recently found four different colour variations of Gladiolus meridionalis within a few kilometres of each other and all on the same soil type.

This beautiful autumn flowering species has an unusual distribution. It grows in stony sandstone soils in low fynbos on mountain slopes and flats between the villages of Gansbaai and Elim in the Overberg region of the Western Cape with an outlying population many hundreds of kilometres to the east near Port Elizabeth.