Gladiolus is an important cut flower crop grown commercially in many parts of the world. Breeding work in gladiolus has been carried out at IARI, New Delhi; IIHR, Bangalore; NBRI, Lucknow, IHBT, Palampur and Horticulture Experiment and Training centre, Chaubattia.

2. Gladiolus (Gladiolus spp.)
• Gladiolus is an important cut flower crop grown
commercially in many parts of the world.
• The name gladiolus derived from the Latin word
Gladius means a sword, on account of the sword
like shape of the foliage. So the other name of
gladiolus is sword lily.
• The basic chromosome number in the genus is
30. But the no present in the typical modern
gladiolus is 60.

3. • Gladiolus is hermophrodite in nature so new
cultivars are evolved through hybridization
and mutation.
• Breeding work in gladiolus has been carried
out at IARI, New Delhi; IIHR, Bangalore; NBRI,
Lucknow, IHBT, Palampur and Horticulture
Experiment and Training centre, Chaubattia.

4. Important groups and species of
gladiolus
Gladiolus comprises 260 spp. with over
30,000 cultivars. On the basis of their
geographical origin botanist listed the gladiolus
species into 4 groups viz.
• Eurasian group (G. communis, G. cardinalis, etc.)
• East African group ( G. aequinoctalis)
• Natalensis group (G. primulinus, G. psittacinus,
etc.)
• South African cape species (G. odoratus, G.
maculatus, etc.)

5. Horticultural classification
• Large flower hybrids: The flower spikes grows to
a height of 120-150 cm, are strong and erect,
with florets of 10-15 cm across, late flowering
type.
• Primulinus type: The spike grows to a height of
100 cm and bears florets of 5-10 cm across. Mid
season flowering type.
• Mimiatures: The spike grows to a height of 60-
100cm with florets 5-7.5cm across. Early
flowering type.

6. • Peacock hybrids: These are good for cuttings,
dwarf in height; multicoloured sorts with
reflexed petals.
• Star flowered: This type bears flat star like
flowers.
• Face ups: Spikes grow 60-90cm, with floret 5-
6cm and face upward.
• Orchideola: Spikes are light in weight, smaller
floret on shorter stem.

7. Breeding objectives
• Improved plant growth
• Better spike quality specially length and strength,
symmetrical arrangement and facing of the florets in
one direction, number of spike
• New colour
• Desired size and form (i.e. compactness, texture and
frilling) and size of floret.
• More number of floret opens at a time.
• Fragrant variety
• More vase life

8. Breeding method
• Introduction
• Selection
• Hybridisation
• Mutation

9. Introduction
Hundreds of varieties of gladiolus
have been introduced to India originated from
USA, Russia, Canada, The Netherlands, Egypt,
England, Australia and Israel. All these
introduced varieties were evaluated in
different agro-climatic zones for commercial
production. List of important exotic varieties is
given in table 1.

10. Table 1: Gladiolus varieties introduced
from different countries
Sl.
no
Country Variety introduced
1 Russia Autumn charm, Autumn rose,
Daydream, etc
2 USA American beauty, Chorus girl, Happy
birthday, etc
3 Israel Novalux, Rose prince, etc
4 The
Netherlands
Donald duck, melody, etc
5 England Anglia, Cliffs of Dover
6 Australia The Barton
7 Canada Green bay, Regency

11. Selection
As gladiolus is a cross pollinated crop,
many insects and birds visit the flower. The
resulted seed setting provides option for
evolution of new combinations. After
evaluation of seedling raised from open
pollinated seed outstanding one can be
selected. Description of some Indian varieties
evolved from seedlings are in table 2

12. Table 2: Important varieties of
gladiolus evolved through selection
Sl.
No
Variety Parentage Evolved at
1 Agnirekha Sylvia IARI, New Delhi
2 Pusa
Suhagin
Sylvia IARI, New Delhi
3 Bindiya Ratna Butterfly IARI, New Delhi
4 Urvasi Red Soft Glow IARI, New Delhi
5 Gazel White
Friendship
NBRI, Lucknow
6 Sada Bahar Sylvia NBRI, Lucknow

13. Hybridization
Most of the modern cultivars of
gladiolus have been developed through
hybridization. To avoid foreign pollen,
emasculation is done preferably in afternoon. It
can be done in the morning before 7:30am.
Pollination is more successful in the morning.
Pollen is dusted on the sticky stigmatic
surface. The process is done on the following
day of emasculation to ensure pollination.

14. About 4-5 florets should be used for
hybridization and remaining portion of spike
should be removed.
Female floret should be covered
before emasculation and after pollination.
Style will begin to wilt within 48 hours. The
pods generally mature after 4-5 weeks of
pollination. Pod should be picked when
become brown and dried. Approximately 90-
100 seeds are expected from a pod.

15. • Hybridization work was started in 1806 by
William Herbert (England).
• While in India hybridization was started in
1956 by Bajrang Bahadur Singh Bhadri, the
then Lieutenant governor of Himachal Pradesh
and developed some 150 varieties suitable for
cultivation in hills of Himachal Pradesh and
other places.
• Gladiolus varieties developed through
hybridization by different organizations are
given in table 3.

16. Table 3: Gladiolus varieties developed through
hybridization by different organizations
Sl. no Variety Parent Evolved at
1 Suchitra Sylvia x Jo Wagenaar IARI, New Delhi
2 Sunayna Geoge Mazure x Melody IARI, New Delhi
3 Apsara Black Jack x Friendship IIHR, Banglore
4 Kumkum Watermelon Pink x Lady John IIHR, Banglore
5 Archana Sylvia x Friendship NBRI, Lucknow
6 Urvashi Eurovision x Snow Princess NBRI, Lucknow
7 Chaubattia
Arunima
Oscar x Mother Fisher HEDC, Chaubatia
8 Punjab Dawn Suchitra x Melody PAU, Ludhiana

17. Mutation
Spontaneous Mutation:
There are many gladiolus cultivars
which are obtained through spontaneous
mutation. Colour mutation is common in this
crop and is generally lighter than the original
variety.
Swarnima is a spontaneous mutant
developed at IARI, New Delhi from the variety
“Dhanvantari”, where the mutated floret
colour is coppery yellow, but Dhanvantari
possesses light yellow florets.

18. Induced mutation:
For improvement through induced
mutation different cultivars of gladiolus
corms, cormels and seeds are treated with
i) Chemical mutagens like Aluminium chloride,
Colchicine, Diethyl sulphate, Ethyl methane
sulphonate, methyl methane sulphonate,
formalin, etc. and
ii) Physical mutagens like Gamma rays, X-rays,
Fast Neutrons, Thermal Neutrons, etc.

19. Cultivar white friendship is a very
popular mutant obtained from its known
parent Friendship. IIHR, IARI, NBRI and other
organisation did some significant contribution
in this line. In general higher doses were
found to be lethal and doses from 0.5-5.0 Krad
are advisable for the Gamma irradiation in
gladiolus

20. Table 4: Name and parent of some varieties
developed through mutation breeding.
Sl. no Mutant Parent
1 Shakti Wild Rose
2 Shobha Wild Rose induced mutant
3 Swarnima Dhanvantari spontaneous
mutant
4 Subhangini Fidelio induced mutant

21. Biotechnology
Gladiolus suffer from viruses because
they are propagated vegetatively. Viruses in
gladiolus results in streaking of the flower and
caused decreased vigour of the plant. There is
no commercial cultivar of gladiolus that are
resistant to virus for breeding, so an
alternative strategy is to develop virus
resistant plants using genetic engineering.

22. One problem encountered when
genetic engineering of gladiolus is that the
only promoter found to express at high levels
in the CaMV35S promoter. Gladiolus plants
have been genetically engineered with coat
protein, replicase and antibdody genes for
resistance to the bean yellow mosaic and
cucumber mosaic virus.