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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Washington, D.C. » National Arboretum » Floral and Nursery Plants Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #326635
Title: Gladiolus diseases

Author
item WADE, ELMER - Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
item Kamo, Kathryn

Submitted to: Handbook on Florist Crop Diseases
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/20/2016
Publication Date: 12/27/2016
Citation: Wade, E.H., Kamo, K.K. 2016. Gladiolus diseases. Handbook on Florist Crop Diseases. 2-19.

Interpretive Summary: Gladiolus are grown in the garden and sold as a cut flower. This book chapter describes the fungal diseases that affect Gladiolus including Botrytis, Curvularia, Fusarium yellows, Fusarium corm rot, Gladiolus rust, and Stromatinia. Because Gladiolus is propagated by corms, the viruses that infect Gladiolus are transmitted every season within the corm. The geographic occurrence and impact, symptoms, biology, epidemiology, and management strategies for each disease along with color photographs for identification are included in this book chapter. This information will be particularly useful to gladiolus growers and scientists.

Technical Abstract: Gladiolus (Gladiolus spp.) are in the Iridaceae family and are native to South Africa. More than 200 species have been described. Gladiolus have become a major crop in the florist industry. Gladiolus corms are planted in the spring and the flower spikes are harvested during the summer and early fall. Although the crop is propagated sexually from seeds, most of the industry is based on movement of corms and cormels, which leads to many diseases being transmitted with the crop. Fusarium corm rot, Gladiolus rust, and Curvularia spot are the most limiting fungal diseases, whereas Cucumber mosaic virus and Bean yellow mosaic virus emerge as the more threatening viral diseases affecting gladiolus.