Plant of the Day: Plant of the day is: Gladiolus tenuis or thin Gladiolus

Plant of the day is: Gladiolus tenuis or thin Gladiolus

I haven't been up on the plant of the day due to other ventures in paying the plants forward. I'm teaching my first college level class on plant propagation this spring so all of my extra plant energy has been put to that task of late. I may find time here and there to fit one in, but until June things will be a bit hectic. With that being said, enjoy a plant today.

Taxonomy, etc.: Gladiolus is a member of the Iridaceae family which is a monocot family that contains the famous Crocus and Iris genera. The family name is based on the Iris (type genus) which was coined by none other than Carl Linnaeus sometime around 1753. Lots of awesome genera in that family ( I recommend a look at Sparaxis and Tritonia for starters but that's just my 2 cents).

Gladiolus is the diminutive of gladius which means sword. If you use your imagination it's really not hard to see where that description fits in. The genus occurs in Asia, Mediterranean Europe, South Africa, and tropical Africa. Sorry Americas, no glads for you. The genus contains around 260 species and of those species 250 are native to sub-Saharan Africa. I did NOT know that, that's amazing really. So this Gladiolus tenuis is one out of 10 Eurasian species, nifty.

Range/Habitat: The Greater Caucasus. Subalpine zone, boggy meadows. Likes meadows in floodplans and terraces above floodplains.

Description: Grows to a height of about 40-70cm from ovate corms. For me, the flower spikes of Gladiolus are very unique, for an adequate description of the genus in general, head here let me Wiki that for you. As far as a basic eyeball hint as to this particular species, it is apparently called thin Gladiolus, which seems well named based on the leaf size.

Culture: As you can see from the photos, it grows in full sun. It need plenty of moisture. From the Russian wiki (thank goodness for translate feature), it can germinate in winter, autumn, and spring. I can share with you that seeds stored for just over a month in a moist baggie of peat based media, then placed in a 40F fridge saw radicles JUST emerging 3 months later. Seeds placed in a 4" pot of standard potting mix are thriving thus far. These seeds were cold dry stored for several years and may have had some dormancy removed from this storage. They do store well though, that we know.

As for culture requirements here in St. Louis...keep it well watered near a sunny water bank and we'll see!