Abstract: Gloriosa superba is a herbaceous plant of Liliaceae, the tuber contains colchicine. In the present paper the tuber formation and change of substance in tuberization are described. The results are briefly summarized as follows: 1. After sowing of tuber, the growth of tuber was slow in the early and later growing stages, however, growth of tuber was the fast in the interme-diate growing stage, it also was main stage of tuberization. 2. The nutrition substance in tuber was mainly starch, the starch content in new tuber increased gradually from sowing to ripeing stage. 3. The photosynthetic rate and leaf area were increased gradually after the sowing of tuber, and before flowerring, they reached maximum and gradually slow down afterwards. 4. The colchicine content in new tuber increased with ripeness of tuber and increasing of starch content, it reached the maximum at ripe stage. The results showed if unripe tuber was harvested, the colchicine content was lower than that of the ripe tuber.

Key words: Cloriosa superba