It is sometimes called the 'sword lily', but is usually called by its generic name (plural gladioli).[4]
The genus occurs in Asia, Mediterranean Europe, South Africa, and tropical Africa. The center of diversity is in the Cape Floristic Region.[5] The genera Acidanthera, Anomalesia, Homoglossum, and Oenostachys, formerly considered distinct, are now included in Gladiolus.[6]
Gladioli grow from round, symmetrical corms[7] (similar to crocuses) that are enveloped in several layers of brownish, fibrous tunics.[8]
Their stems are generally unbranched, producing 1 to 9 narrow, sword-shaped, longitudinal grooved leaves, enclosed in a sheath.[2] The lowest leaf is shortened to a cataphyll. The leaf blades can be plane or cruciform in cross section.
The flowers of unmodified wild species vary from very small to perhaps 40 mm across, and inflorescences bearing anything from one to several flowers. The spectacular giant flower spikes in commerce are the products of centuries of hybridisation and selection.
The flower spikes are large and one-sided, with secund, bisexual flowers, each subtended by 2 leathery, green bracts. The sepals and the petals are almost identical in appearance, and are termed tepals. They are united at their base into a tube-shaped structure. The dorsal tepal is the largest, arching over the three stamens. The outer three tepals are narrower. The perianth is funnel-shaped, with the stamens attached to its base. The style has three filiform, spoon-shaped branches, each expanding towards the apex.[9]
The ovary is 3-locular with oblong or globose capsules,[9] containing many, winged brown, longitudinally dehiscentseeds.
These flowers are variously coloured, ranging from pink to reddish or light purple with white, contrasting markings, or white to cream or orange to red.[10]
The South African species were originally pollinated by long-tongued anthophorini bees,[11] but some changes in the pollination system have occurred, allowing pollination by sunbirds, noctuid and Hawk-moths, long-tongued flies and several others.[12] In the temperate zones of Europe many of the hybrid large flowering sorts of gladiolus can be pollinated by small well-known wasps. Actually, they are not very good pollinators because of the large flowers of the plants and the small size of the wasps. Another insect in this zone which can try some of the nectar of the gladioli is the best-known European Hawk-moth Macroglossum stellatarum which usually pollinates many popular garden flowers like Petunia, Zinnia, Dianthus and others.[13]
Gladioli have been extensively hybridized and a wide range of ornamental flower colours are available from the many varieties.[10] The main hybrid groups have been obtained by crossing between four or five species, followed by selection: 'Grandiflorus', 'Primulines' and 'Nanus'. They can make very good cut flowers for display.[10]
The majority of the species in this genus are diploid with 30 chromosomes (2n=30) but the Grandiflora hybrids are tetraploid and possess 60 chromosomes (2n=4x=60). This is because the main parental species of these hybrids is Gladiolus dalenii which is also tetraploid and includes a wide range of varieties (like the Grandiflora hybrids).[10]
Intemperate zones, the corms of most species and hybrids should be lifted in autumn and stored over winter in a frost-free place, then replanted in spring. Some species from Europe and high altitudes in Africa, as well as the small 'Nanus' hybrids, are much hardier (to at least −26 °C or −15 °F) and can be left in the ground in regions with sufficiently dry winters. 'Nanus' is hardy to Zones 5–8. The large-flowered types require moisture during the growing season, and must be individually staked as soon as the sword-shaped flower heads appear. The leaves must be allowed to die down naturally before lifting and storing the corms. Plants are propagated either from small cormlets produced as offsets by the parent corms, or from seed. In either case, they take several years to get to flowering size. Clumps should be dug up and divided every few years to keep them vigorous.[15]
The Australian comedian and personality Dame Edna Everage's signature flowers were gladioli, which she referred to as "gladdies".[23]
The ancient Graeco-Roman god Pluto was said to wear a wreath of what is traditionally identified as a type of Gladiolus,[24] called phasganionorxiphioninKoine Greek.[25]
The Mancunian singer Morrissey is known to dance with gladioli hanging from his back pocket or in his hands, especially during the era of The Smiths.[26] This trait of his was made known in the music video for "This Charming Man", where he swung a bunch of yellow gladioli while singing.[27]
Gladioli are traditionally given to people who finish the International Four Days Marches Nijmegen. This likely derives from their association with victory, from the time when gladiators were showered with them upon victory.
^ abPerry, Dr. Leonard. "Gladiolus". pss.uvm.edu. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
^Manning, John; Goldblatt, Peter (2008). The Iris Family: Natural History & Classification. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. pp. 138–42. ISBN978-0-88192-897-6.
^Shorter Oxford English dictionary: 6th edition. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. 2007. ISBN978-0199206872.
^Goldblatt, P. &, J.C. Manning. Gladiolus in Southern Africa : Systematics, Biology, and Evolution. Fernwood Press, Cape Town; 1998.
^Goldblatt, P.; De Vos, M. P. (1989). "The reduction of Oenostachys, Homoglossum and Anomalesia, putative sunbird pollinated genera, in Gladiolus L. (Iridaceae-Ixioideae)". Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Section B. 11 (4): 417–428.
^Goldblatt, Peter; Manning, John C.; Bernhardt, Peter (October 1997). "Notes on the Pollination of Gladiolus brevifolius (Iridaceae) by Bees (Anthophoridae) and Bee Mimicking Flies (Psilodera: Acroceridae)". Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. 70 (4): 297–304. JSTOR25085792.
^Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle (Paris, 1819), pp. 315–316; Julius Billerbeck, Flora classica (Leipzig, 1824), p. 13; "L'origine dei maccheroni," Archivo per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari 17 (1898), vol. 36, p. 428.
^Ancient sources on phasganion, xiphion and gladiolus, generally called "corn-flag" by historical botanists, include Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum 7.12.3; Dioscorides, De Materia MedicaE 2.101; Pliny, Natural History 21.107–115; Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius 79, as cited by Andrew Dalby, Food in the Ancient World from A to Z (Routledge, 2003), p. 105, characterizing Pliny's entry on the plant as "confused." The correspondence of ancient plant names to modern species is always uncertain. Both the Greek xiphion and the Latin word gladiolus ("little sword") come from a word meaning "sword."
G. R. Delpierre and N. M. du Plessis (1974). The winter-growing Gladioli of Southern Africa. Tafelberg-Uitgewers Beperk 120 colour photographs and descriptions.
Peter Goldblatt (1996). A monograph of the genus Gladiolus in tropical Africa (83 species). Timber Press
Peter Goldblatt, J. C. Manning (1998). Gladiolus in southern Africa: Systematics, Biology, and Evolution, including 144 watercolor paintings. Cape Town: Fernwood Press.
![Gladiole by Philipp Ernst [de]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ph_Ernst_%28201%29.JPG)
