Gladiolus

Gladiolus, the name of a genus comprising "about DO species, -belonging to the Iris family, natives of South Africa and the Mediterranean regions. They have fleshy corms, sword-like, distichous leaves (whence their name), and spikes of showy, monosymmetric flowers with a funnel-shaped, curved, or arched perianth-tube, and three stamens placed posteriorly. The slender style divides into three petaloid stigmatic segments, much as in Crocus. The plants grow three or four feet high, are perennial, can be multiplied by off sets from the corm, and hybridise freely, so that a multitude of sorts are in cultivation.