'l.' is aliased in /etc/profile.d/colorls.{sh,csh} to 'ls .[a-zA-Z]* --color=tty'. When there is a subdirectory starting with dot, its contents are listed, not just its name (Go to your home directory and type 'l.'. You probably won't like that.) I believe the correct alias is 'ls -d .[a-zA-Z]* --color=tty'. Thanks.
The "l." alias is taken from the (old) DLD distribution [acquired by Red Hat last year], which had it exactly that way. I agree that your version is nicer, though, and have changed it in 4.0.27-1.