Morphological characterization and selection of superior gladiolus germplasm in Bangladesh

The present study was conducted to characterize and evaluate 30 Gladiolus germplasm for selection and breeding during the period of 2017-20. The study showed a wide range of variations in the 12 qualitative and 16 quantitative characteristics of plant and flower (spike) towards yield. The qualitative characters such as leaf orientation and colour, florets arrangement on a spike, flower shape, attitude and colour, floret compactness, shape of outer petal, macule position in inner petal, macule color, corm shape and colour showed distinct variation. In quantitative characters, the germplasm GL-09 showed the maximum plant height (98.0 cm), GL-06 found early flowering (56.67 days) and exhibited the maximum floret diameter (11.92 cm) followed by GL-26 (11.83 cm), GL-07 and GL-17 (11.67 cm). Spike length was observed maximum (92.0 cm) in GL-27. The maximum number of florets/spike (19.33) was occurred by the germplasm GL-12. The germplasm GL-02 exhibited the maximum individual spike weight (203.0g) and corm weight (120.20 g). Based on morphological traits, the top-ranking 5 germplasm obtained GL-02, GL-06, GL-09, GL-12 and GL-27. In conclusion, the existing variation of the Gladiolus germplasm can be used in in future breeding program for improvement of Gladiolus variety.