The genus name Gladiolus is derived from the Latin gladiolus, meaning ‘a small sword’, with reference to the narrow, sword-like leaves produced by many Gladiolus species. The specific name aureus is taken from the Latin aurea, meaning ‘golden-coloured’. The species was collected for the first time in August 1894 by the naturalist Mr C.B. Fair, in the southern Cape Peninsula, and was described by the Kew botanist J.G. Baker in volume 6 of Flora capensis, in 1896. The plant was first illustrated in watercolour by Margaret Stones, whose plate in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine was published in 1965, from plants grown from seed in Dorset, England, collected in the wild by Prof. Tom Barnard. The species was re-assessed as Homoglossum aureum by the Pretoria botanist, Amelia Obermeyer, in 1972, but returned to Gladiolus by the Stellenbosch botanist, Miriam de Vos, in 1976.

Endemic to the southern Cape Peninsula, G. aureus has historically always been confined to only a few sites. Its complete demise was almost brought about in the late 1960s and early 1970s, by the development of a township over most of its habitat, but, surprisingly, a number of plants survived. In 1975 and 1976, wild-collected seed was brought into cultivation in the nurseries at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, and at the then Cape Department of Nature Conservation at Assegaaibosch, near Stellenbosch. In 1976, a further 1 100 wild-collected seeds, collected by the Rare and Endangered Plant Species Survey team, led by Prof. Tony Hall of the Botany Department, University of Cape Town, were temporarily placed in cold storage in the blood-plasma bank at the Cape Town Medical Centre, and later lodged in the Millenium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place, United Kingdom. The largest number of flowering individuals ever recorded was 61, out of a total of 113 plants noted, in 1978. In 1978, a further 678 wild-collected seeds were placed in the blood-plasma bank, and transferred to cold storage at Kirstenbosch several years ago. These seeds were sown in the bulb nursery at Kirstenbosch in May 2017, a number of which germinated 6 weeks later, after 39 years in storage. Over the years, various efforts were made by staff of Cape Nature, SANParks and the Kommetjie Environmental Awareness Group, to monitor the plants, fence off one of the populations, and clear the area of alien vegetation.

During the early 1980s, surplus seeds harvested from hand-pollinated flowers in the bulb nursery at Kirstenbosch, were distributed to specialist bulb growers in South Africa and abroad. Subsequently, additional pure seed from the nursery plants were added to the seed stock held at Wakehurst. In 1984, an attempt was made to establish a new population at an alternative site in the southern Cape Peninsula, and numerous corms, propagated at Kirstenbosch, were planted out into suitable habitat. Unfortunately, the plants only survived a few years before being decimated by wild animals, probably by rodents. A second attempt was made to establish a new population in 2012, and corms were planted into a different site, but these, too, succumbed to rodents. A third attempt, led by the Kirstenbosch Conservation Programme, will be made, to establish a viable population at a different site, in due course.

Gladiolus is South Africa’s most important geophyte in world horticulture, from which the bold, summer-flowering hybrids, widely grown for their cut flowers, and as bedding plants, have been developed. The genus has in excess of 250 species, and is concentrated in the winter-rainfall region of the southwestern Cape, and also occurs in tropical Africa, Madagascar, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Minor.     

Figure 6. Gladiolus aureus, adult corms (Graham Duncan).