In September 2009 when I was in South Africa for my first trip there, I found only a few individual plants of Gladiolus alatus in bloom. The next trip in September 2016, there were thousands of them (in a different region) spreading swaths of orange across the landscape of a recent burn outside of Franschhoek, Western Cape. The bulbous plant diversity in this region is without equal elsewhere on earth. Gladiolus species alone number about 160 within South Africa, with about 100 being endemic to just the winter-rainfall regions of the Cape. Most are very beautiful, but this is one of my favorite colors so I tend to single orange flowers out for extra attention. 

The cheery orange petals tipped with yellow make Gladiolus alatus one of the more noticeable glad species, despite their short stature of only about 6″ to 8″ tall (15-20 cm). Gladiolus are in the iris family (Iridaceae).

I took this macro photo of G. alatus near Nieuwoudtville, Northern Cape in 2009. All other photos here are from my 2016 trip.

This particular population was growing on the recently burned slopes just above a reservoir.

Hundreds of glads were spangled across the landscape. It was a beautiful show which we were fortunate to hit near its peak.

The fire probably occurred in the fall before this spring, probably not more than 5 to 6 months prior. Bulbous species (geophytes) tolerate fires extremely well because the underground parts are well-insulated from the charring by layers of soil, and in the aftermath the niches in the ecosystem are opened up with the removal of competing taller woody vegetation.

Gladiolus alatus in an abundant cycle of bloom immediately post-fire.

Dead blackened twigs of other vegetation punctuate the bloom spikes of Gladiolus alatus. The genus Gladiolus is diverse in South Africa, and the flowers come in an array of colors spanning 150 or more different species.

Many bulbs undergo one or more heavy bloom cycles in the several years immediately after a fire clears the path for them. They set abundant numbers of seeds, and seedlings can germinate in the open terrain. Meanwhile, as woody vegetation recovers, the bulbs prepare for an inevitable downward cycle for some years while the taller shrubs and small trees take their turn to grow and reproduce. It’s not that all bulbs cease to bloom for 10 or 20 years (although some do indeed do this) but rather they are less obvious and prevalent until eventually fire returns and the cycle repeats. Millions of years of this pattern has led to a huge diversity of fire-adapted fynbos species, including the richest bulb flora on earth.

Other bulbs join in with the post-fire bloom cycle, including several species of iris relatives, like this yellow one which is possibly Moraea spathulata.

Another bulb-like plant that flowers well after fires is Wachendorfia paniculata. Known commonly as red root, the rhizomes and corms of this and related species are a bright red-orange color which has been used as a dye in times past. This trait is also reflected in the family name Haemodoraceae, in that the first part of “Haemo-” refers to blood. Hence the group is often called the bloodwort family. The best known representative of the family is Anigozanthos, the kangaroo paw of Western Australia. It makes a good foreground to the Gladiolus alatus show in the backdrop of the photo, does it not?

I shot a zoomed-in photo of distant bands of wildflowers coloring the slopes beneath the Franschhoek Mountains near the site where all of the other photos in this post were taken. It is hard to tell what species might be creating the colors, but the orange is probably one of the daisies such as Arctotis, Gazania or Dimorphotheca, and not Gladiolus alatus. Although it would be so cool if it were!

Here is a gallery of some of the other colorful species that emerged post-fire in the same zone, as well as another burn scar a few miles away.