Acidanthera bicolor

Family Iridaceae. Native to Ethiopia.

Cormous-bulbous perennial up to 120 cm tall. Stems simple or branched at the top. Leaves numerous, light green, linear or sword-shaped, 40–50 cm long. Flowers with a long tube, up to 12 cm in diameter, fragrant, creamy-white with a large blackish-red spot in the center, borne 3–8 together in a spike-like inflorescence on a thin, tall scape. Blooms in August–September. Corms rounded, up to 3 cm in diameter, milky-white, covered with a dense brown tunic. In cultivation since 1886.

A. bicolor is often called the fragrant gladiolus. The English breeder Kelwey offered Acidanthera for sale in 1885 under the name gladiolus Murieli (G. murieli). In 1930 T. A. Perry described the variety A. bicolor var. murielae Perry. In the catalogs of some Dutch firms there appears a hybrid A. х tubergenii hort., distinguished by larger flowers.

Often used by breeders in hybridization with Gladiolus to obtain fragrant forms. The Australian breeder Joan Wright obtained a tetraploid hybrid between these genera, named Gladanthera (x Gladanthera 'Lucky Star'), combining characteristics of Acidanthera and Gladiolus.