It can also live in symbiosis with plants and fungi[2] and is found in soil, water, the rhizosphere, and in the microbiome of many animals.

Burkholderia gladioli synthesizes several inhibitory substances, among them gladiolin, bongkrek acid, enacyloxin, and toxoflavin.

[7] One pathovariety, growing on coconut pulp, produces the mitochondria disrupting toxin bongkrek acid which can cause fatal poisoning in humans.

[11] Gladioli refers to the plant genus Gladiolus, which is grown ornamentally around the world, and where the fungus can cause rot.

The Genus Burkholderia (including B. gladioli) shows a remarkable amount of diversity of metabolism of carbohydrates and other organic compounds.

B. gladioli has been identified as a plant pathogen in onions, gladiolus, iris, and together with Burkholderia glumae affect the rice.

Contaminated tempe bongkrèk can contain lethal amounts of highly toxic bongkrek acid and toxoflavin.

[citation needed] B. gladioli was implicated in the 2015 deaths of 75 people, in Mozambique, who had consumed a home-brewed beer made from corn flour that was contaminated with the bacterium.

[18] A 3-year long study period of neonatal and nosocomial sepsis yielded 14 patients (out of approximately 3784) with isolated positive colonies of B. gladioli from blood cultures.

During this time, symptoms of the sepsis caused by the B. gladioli infection included congenital leukemia, pneumonia, and several other respiratory malfunctions.

[19] The primary system responsible for the disease caused by Burkholderia gladioli is a type two secretion pathway.

[20] Gladiolin, a novel macrolide produced by B. gladioli strain BCC0238, was found to have promising antibiotic activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a 2017 study; the compound, which inhibits RNA polymerase, is structurally and functionally similar to etnangien, a macrolide synthesised by the bacterium Sorangium cellulosum which has also demonstrated potency against Mycobacterium, but is more unstable than gladiolin.