The yellow flowers of Bobartia gladiata subsp. gladiata, the sword rush lily or rush iris, grow in clusters of three to six. The outer tepals are slightly longer than the inner ones, reaching lengths of about 3,6 cm and giving the flower a somewhat triangular appearance.

An irregular ring of small brown spots can be seen inside the corolla centre. The anthers are pale orange in colour, thin and about 12 mm long. They spread on short filaments of only 3 mm around the style that has three narrow branches, not as tall as the anthers.

Flowers usually last less than a day. Flowering occurs from late winter to year end (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iSpot; Wikipedia).