Gladiolus

About 260, see text

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Gladiolus (from Latin, the diminutive of gladius, a sword), sometimes called the sword lily, is a genus of flowering plants, iris family (Iridaceae).

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The genus Gladiolus contains about 260 species, of which 250 are growing in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly South Africa. About 10 species are growing in Eurasia. There are 160 species of Gladiolus endemic in southern Africa and 76 in tropical Africa. The species vary from very small to the spectacular giant flower spikes in commerce.

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These very attractive, perennial herbs are semihardy in temperate climates. They are commonly grown from rounded, symmetrical corms, that are enveloped in several layers of brownish, fibrous tunics.

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Their stems are generally unbranched, producing 1 to 9 narrow, sword-shaped, longitudinal grooved leaves, enclosed in a sheath. The lowest leaf is shortened to a cataphyll. The leaf blades can be plane or cruciform in cross section.

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The fragrant 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.

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The ovary is 3-locular with oblong or globose capsules, containing many, winged brown, longitudinally dehiscent seeds.

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These flowers are variously colored, pink to reddish or light purple with white, contrasting markings, or white to cream or orange to red.

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The South African species were originally pollinated by long-tongued anthrophorine bees, but some changes in the pollination system have occurred, allowing pollination by sunbirds, noctuid and sphingid moths, long-tongued flies and several others.

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They make very good cut flowers. However, due to their height, the cultivated forms frequently tend to fall over in the wind if left on the plant.

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Gladioli (the plural form of the word) have been extensively hybridized and a wide range of ornamental flower colours are available from the many varieties. The main hybrid groups are obtained by crossing between four or five species, followed by selection: Grandiflorus, Primulines and Nanus.

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The stage character Dame Edna Everage, has adopted the gladiolus as her trademark flower; the flowers often appear in her publicity photos and stage appearances.

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Latin: Latin is an Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and many words based on Latin are found in other modern languages such as English. The ...

Diminutive: A diminutive is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object named, intimacy, or endearment. In some languages diminutives are formed in a regular way by adding affixes to nouns and proper names, in English the alteration of meaning is often but ...

Sword: A sword (from Old English sweord; akin to Old High German swerd lit. "wounding tool", from the Proto-Indo-European *swer- "to wound, to hurt") is a long edged bladed weapon, consisting in its most fundamental design of a blade, usually with two edges for striking and cutting, and a point for thrusti...

Gladiolus related Images and Photos (experimental)

Gladiolus