Gladiolus murielae
| Gladiolus murielae | |
|---|---|
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| Gladiolus murielae in its natural environment near Montepuez, Mozambique | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Embryophytes |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Iridaceae |
| Genus: | Gladiolus |
| Species: | G. murielae |
| Binomial name | |
| Gladiolus murielae Kelway[1] | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Gladiolus murielae is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae, native to eastern Africa, from Ethiopia to Mozambique.[1] It has been given a number of English names, including Abyssinian gladiolus, fragrant gladiolus, peacock gladiolus, and peacock orchid.[2] It was formerly placed in the genus Acidanthera as Acidanthera bicolor.[1]
It is a cormous perennial growing to 70–100 cm (28–39 in) tall, with linear leaves, and in late summer numerous fragrant white flowers with a maroon (occasionally orange) blotch in the throat, on slender nodding stems. Widely cultivated, it is a common subject in western and southern European gardens, where the corms are lifted every year and stored in frost-free conditions.[3]
This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.[4][5]
Pollination
The long floral tube, the creamy white flowers, the marks in the throat and the sweet fragrance are typical for gladioluses that in their natural environment are pollinated by sphinx moths with a long proboscis.[6]
Taxonomy
The species was first described as Acidanthera bicolor by Christian Hochstetter in 1844.[7] In 1973, Wessel Marais included the genus Acidanthera in Gladiolus. As the name Gladiolus bicolor had already been published by Carl Peter Thunberg in 1784,[8] for a taxon now considered to be the same as Sparaxis villosa,[9] and in 1877 again by John Gilbert Baker,[10] as a nomen novum for Gladiolus luteus Klatt non Lam., a taxon now considered to be the same as Gladiolus virescens,[11] Marais needed another name. He chose to call the species Gladiolus callianthus. Marais was apparently unaware that nurseryman James Kelway had already validly published the name Gladiolus murielae in 1932, so that the name G. callianthus was superfluous. Kelway published the name in The Gardeners' Chronicle, a horticultural magazine mostly overlooked by botanists. The epithet murielae honours Muriel Erskine; her husband E.N. Erskine had collected the specimen in Ethiopia on which Kelway based the name.[12]
The species is often still offered for sale under the name Acidanthera bicolor, sometimes with murielae added as an infraspecific name,[13] or even as the cultivar name 'Murielae'.[14]
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Gladiolus murielae Kelway". Plants of the World Online (POWO). Kew Science. Retrieved 7 August 2026.
- ↑ Gardening Help: Gladiolus murielae, Missouri Botanical Garden, retrieved 24 October 2024
- ↑ RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN 978-1405332965.
- ↑ "Gladiolus murielae AGM". RHS Plant Finder. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ↑ "AGM Plants - Ornamental" (PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 43. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
- ↑ Goldblatt, P.; Manning, J.C. (1 October 2002). "Radiation and Floral Adaptation in Gladiolus". Pacific Horticulture. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
- ↑ Hochstetter, C.F. (1844). "Nova genera plantarum Africae". Flora oder botanische Zeitung. 27 (2): 25.
- ↑ Thunberg, C.P. (1784). D.D. Gladiolus. p. 16.
- ↑ "Gladiolus bicolor Thunb". Plants of the World Online (POWO). Kew Science. Retrieved 7 August 2026.
- ↑ Baker, J.G. (1877). "Systema Iridacearum". Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany, London. 16 (91): 178.
- ↑ "Gladiolus bicolor Baker". Plants of the World Online (POWO). Kew Science. Retrieved 7 August 2026.
- ↑ "Gladiolus murielae Kelway, Gard. Chron. ser. 3, 92(2381): 107 (1932)". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Kew Science. Retrieved 7 August 2026.
- ↑ La Croix, Isobyl (2012). "A selection of tropical Gladiolus". The Plantsman. New Series. 11 (3): 184–187.
- ↑ Evans, Erv, Acidanthera bicolor, Gladiolus callianthus; Abyssinian, Fragrant gladiolus, Sword lily, NC State University, archived from the original on 2007-09-04, retrieved 2007-06-29