Re: Gladiolus dalenii

 

They're clones in the sense that they're all vegetative offsets, genetically identical to the original corm that was grown from seed long ago. Gladiolus are not self-compatible, so you can only get seed by crossing two cultivars, and the offspring would be different than the parents.


Interestingly, G. dalenii is a major contributer to the hybrid florists' glads, even though it is tetraploid while most Gladiolus are diploid. Some of these heirloom rescue plants may actually be early triploid hybrids that are 2/3 dalenii and therefore closely resemble it. They were then crossed back to diploids to create the modern tetraploid hybrids.

Sean Z

Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index