Gladioli

£2.40

Sympathy card featuring white gladioli with text ‘With Sympathy’

– Blank inside for your own message
– Printed in the UK on premium card stock
– Supplied with a white envelope

In stock

SKU: C0047 Category:

Description

Gladioli

Gladioli is a sympathy card featuring white gladioli with text ‘With Sympathy’.

Gladioli are native to many regions around the world and there are more than 300 species. Moreover, there are more than 250 species in Southern Africa alone.

The name comes from the resemblance of the leaves to swords. For those with a command of Latin you might recognise the word gladius, meaning sword. And for the rest of us we surely know the word gladiator, which is a derivative of gladius. Actually, the connection to a sword is more than simply a resemblance. As anyone who has handled the leaves will know, the edges are quite sharp. In fact, they can easily cut a finger if one draws one’s hand along an edge.

Like crocuses, these flowers are members of the iris family. Like irises, they share the growth habit of being perennials that grow from corms. Corms are fat, round, underground tubers that feed plants so they can survive winter. As you might have observed, gladioli (like crocuses and irises) like damp conditions, so corms also help in times of drought.

Dehiscent Seed Pods

You may have seen gladioli seed pods. I have often seen them but only when they are green and fresh. What I have learned is that when they mature they split along their length to release their contents. Structures that open in this way are described as dehiscent. Contrariwise structures that do not open in this way are called indehiscent.

SKU: C0047

White gladioli with text 'With Sympathy'
Gladioli
£2.40