Gladiolus oppositiflorus Herb.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘I believe alatus to belong to the same family as psittacinus, and also a beautiful species, imported, likewise, as I understand, from the neighbourhood of the Nathal River, which I propose to call G. oppositiflorus.  It is now sold by the Dutch nursery-men under the name floribundus, which has long been pre-occupied’.  [Herbert]. 

It was described but not figured in the Botanical Register, with a note from William Herbert: ‘A native of Madagascar, where it was found by Forbes, a young man employed some years since as a collector by the Horticultural Society.  The G. gandavensis of gardens is a cross between G. oppositiflorus and natalensis; so also is G. ramosus of the gardens, between G. oppositiflorus and cardinalis or cardinali-blandus.’  [BR misc.98/1842]. 

‘I suppose this fine Gladiolus to be identical with the oppositiflorus of Herbert, about which so much has been written in connection with the garden forms of the genus.  Herbert’s plant was never figured, and his description is a short one, but there is a specimen in the Kew Herbarium, which was given by Herbert to Sir William Hooker from his garden at Spofforth, near Knaresborough, which leaves little room for doubt that the plant now figured is the same species.’  [BM t.7292/1893].

Introduced from Madagascar in 1843 [JD].  But if the parentage given for G. x gandavensis is correct, oppositiflorus must have been introduced some years earlier.

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1845, 1850 and 1857 catalogues [B.149/1845].  Probably introduced by John Bidwill.  [See Gladiolus cardinalis Curt.]. 

Notes