[pbs] Gladiolus pictures
Mary Sue Ittner
msittner at mcn.org
Fri Mar 2 10:59:03 EST 2007
Hi,
In the middle of doing the thumbnails for the Southern African Gladiolus
wiki pages I decided to add some habitat shots from our trip to South
Africa in August and September last year and others from Cameron McMaster's
CD that shows pictures from the area he lives in, the Overberg, and some
from the western Cape as well. This is taking a bit of time since there are
so many of them. One of the things that strikes me always is the variation
you see in the wild. The Gladiolus species are so gorgeous I think.
Blooming for me now are Gladiolus gracilis and all the Gladiolus huttonii
hybrids and there are lots of spikes here and there of other species. I've
been picking more of them this year so I can enjoy them before the rain
ruins them. So as not to overwhelm you I'm going to announce the Gladiolus
pages as I finish them instead of all at once.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/SouthernAfricanGladiolusOne
I added habitat pictures of Gladiolus abbreviatus from Cameron. I still
think this is a rather strange looking one that grows in grassy areas. I
added more habitat pictures of Gladiolus alatus too. We saw it a lot of
times on our trip, but the ones pictured were ones we couldn't forget. For
one thing there was a mass of them. And for another, not far from where we
saw them a farmer had plowed over a huge mass of them and just left it a
ruinous mess. What he had done was illegal we were told and he hadn't done
anything to plant the field afterwards. Perhaps it was a way to say later
there was nothing special on his property he needed to protect. It was very
sad to see.
There are new habitat pictures from Cameon of G. brevifolius and G.
bullatus. And there is an especially nice picture of G. carinatus Cameron
took at Hopefield in the western Cape. Pictures from him of Gladiolus
carmineus in habitat illustrate how often this one grows with a view of the
ocean. The same was true of G. cunonius growing near Arniston. I live
within the sight of the Pacific Ocean in northern California and G.
carmineus is naturalizing in my garden, but G. cunonius that is about to
bloom I have less success growing. I keep trying it again from seed, but
the leaves get damaged in our wet winters. Perhaps the difference is that
G. carmineus blooms in fall when it is still usually dry here.
Finally there are a couple more habitat pictures of the beautiful G.
debilis from Cameron.
More pages to come when I finish. I have some more wild pictures of the
other species in what I'll call the Gladiolus alatus complex. There is
probably a more official name for these, but they are the ones that look
similar: Gladiolus alatus, Gladiolus equitans, Gladiolus meliusculus, G.
pulcherrimus and G. speciosus.
Mary Sue
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