Identifying a Volunteer Galdiolus
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 21 Jun 2007 07:27:04 PDT)

Dear Donna,

First of all welcome to the PBS list. We have a number of members who live
in Texas.

Your Gladiolus is very pretty and it's very strange how it could have
arrived if you don't have Gladiolus in your garden and you mix your own
soil. I wouldn't think Gladiolus seed would make it through a bird's
digestive system either. Ones that I grow are surrounded by a protective
papery part of the seed that I assume would allow them to float in the air
and be disbursed that way. I looked it up in the Gladiolus in Southern
Africa book and seeds are described:
"Fairy large, light brown, broadly winged seeds are characteristic of
Gladiolus. The seed body itself is globose, but part of the seed coat
extends in a halo around the seed as a broad wing. " The capsules in at
least one group may act as sails allowing the whole aerial part of the
plant to be dispersed as a unit by the wind. Perhaps the seed blew in from
a neighbor?

There are so many hybrid Gladiolus available that it could be a hybrid. It
reminds me of Gladiolus oppositiflorus, but that species usually has more
flowers (7 to 15, occasionally to 26) and as befitting of the name, the
flowers are usually two ranked, opposed or opposite or 80 degrees apart and
your pictures look different. In the wild it usually blooms late summer to
early fall, but it can bloom earlier or later.

Anyone else with any suggestions?

Mary Sue