Fritillaria
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| Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture |
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Fritillaria (Latin fritillus, commonly understood to be a checker-board, but may have meant dice-box). Liliaceas. Fritillary. This group includes the crown imperial and the fritillaries, hardy bulbous plants, mostly low-growing and spring-blooming, with drooping or nodding flowers which are often checkered or tessellated with dark purple and green, but some also with brighter colors. Various leafy-stemmed simple herbs, the st.-lvs. narrow, sessile, alternate or whorled, the bulb mostly of few fleshy scales: perianth deciduous, mostly bell- shaped or sometimes bowl-shaped, the segms. nearly or quite equal, oblong or ovate, all or the inner ones with a nectar-bearing cavity or area at the base; stamens 6, with slender filaments and linear or oblong anthers; ovary 3-celled, nearly or quite sessile: fr. an ovoid or subglobose loculicidal winged or angled caps., with numerous seeds.—Species perhaps 70, widely distributed in the north temperate zone. Fritillaries resemble lilies in having drooping or nodding fls. but their anthers are fixed at the base, while those of the lilies are fastened on the back but are free to swing about. Lilies have funnel-shaped fls., while fritillaries and tulips have bell-shaped fls., and tulip fls. are erect. Nearly all the Old World fritillaries resemble tulips in having coated bulbs, while the American fritillaries resemble lilies in having scaly bulbs. The most popular kinds are the checkered lily (F. meleagris) and crown imperial (F. imperialis). Figs. 1582, 1583. These are hardy, easy to cultivate, and variable. The crown imperial is one of the most characteristic plants of old-fashioned gardens, but it has been banished from many modern gardens because of its strong fetid odor. It is the most robust species, and until lately was supposed to be the only one with its flowers in umbels, all the others being solitary or in racemes. It rejoices the children early in every spring by its pearly drops of nectar, which seem never to fall. F. meleagris, the most popular of the purple kinds, is the common snake's-head or checkered lily, so called from the tessellation of purple and green, which is prettiest when as sharply and regularly defined as possible. This plant grows wild in moist English meadows, and can be naturalized in large quantities in such situations. Other ancient inhabitants of European gardens are F. latifolia, F. lutea and F. persica. Other kinds are apparently less known in gardens. As a rule, the kinds that are chiefly purple or green, or mixtures of both colors, are dull, unattractive and curious compared with the few kinds that have brilliant yellow or red. Of the duller and purple kinds, two of the choicest, next to F. meleagris, are F. tulipifolia (which is flamed like a tulip and never checkered) and F. camtschatcensis, great masses of which in Alaska make one of the "summer sights" remembered by the tourists. The white in fritillaries is perhaps always more or less greenish, and .the white color in F. meleagris is as good as in any species. A most brilliant species is F. recurva, which is also difficult of culture. Next in brilliancy come such species as F. lutea, F. aurea, F. Moggridgei and F. pudica. all highly individual and all yellow, some checkered, others not. The culture of fritillaries is rather various, as some species are capable of being naturalized, some cultivated in borders, some in rockeries and others in pots. The crown imperial, being exceptionally vigorous, requires deep planting, rich soil and much room. The earth should be trenched. Well-rotted manure may be worked into the soil 6 inches below the bulbs and the bulbs set on a level 6 inches from the surface of the ground. If possible it should be shaded from the midday sun, as southern exposures are said to make the flowers smaller and shorter-lived. In border cultivation of fritillaries the essential peculiarities are a sheltered shady site, early fall planting, division every two or three years, and, as a rule, a warm, deep, sandy loam, which is not top cold or too retentive of moisture. Bulbs of the taller kinds may be planted 3 to 4 inches deep; bulbs of the dwarf kinds may be set at half that depth. As all fritillaries increase rapidly by offsets, it is desirable to lift and divide the plants at least every three years, or the small bulbs will rob the big ones. For the same reason, fritillaries are rarely propagated by seeds. The dwarf and rare sorts require more care and some leaf-mold in their soil, and some kinds require an evergreen carpet through which they may spring, as Sedum hispanicum or its var. glaucum. Our native fritillaries, which include the bright- flowered F. recurva and F. pudica, are confined to the Pacific coast. Of these Carl Purdy makes two cultural groups, based on the character of bulb, the kind of soil and the conditions of shade. The first group contains F. biflora, F. liliacea, F. pluriflora and F. purdyi; the second F. atropurpurea, F. coccinea, F. lanceolata, F. parviflora, F. pudica and F. recurva. The former grow in the sun in open fields in heavy clay soils; the latter in shady woods in well-drained soils, but F. pudica does not need so much shade as the others of its group, and must have sandy loam and slight shelter. The bulbs of the first group are composed of thick, heavy scales attached to a thin rhizomatous base, and the stems are 4 to 12 inches high and very leafy at the base; in the second group the bulbs are of one piece, and low- conical in form, their sides thickly covered with small, round, white rice like offsets, and the slender stems are 1 to 3 feet high and leafy above the base. For the first group Purdy recommends a rich loam, and a slight shade to draw out the stems and prolong the bloom; for the second group a light, loose soil, rich in mold, a sheltered place and considerable shade. At the best these are not profuse in their bloom. The key to the various subgenera here given is essentially Baker's in his monograph in Jour. Linn. Soc. 14:251 (1875); it rarely happens that the botanical and horticultural interests agree in using such simple and obvious characters as those of the bulb and style. The nectaries or glands are less useful and reliable, but they help to explain the natural groups in this varied genus. F. agrestis, Greene. Bulbs very deep-seated: sts. 1-1 ½ ft.: lvs. 8-12, oblong-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate: fls. 3-8, on abruptly recurved pedicels, yellowish green, with prominent midnerve on each segm. Calif.—Said by Purdy to occur in 2 forms, one a dainty plant a few inches high with fls. having light green or yellow base- color and heavily lined with brown (Mendocino Co.): the other a foot or two kill and similarly marked, so fetid as to be called "stink bells" (edge of .San Joaquin Valley, Contra Costa Co.). Probably not in cult.—F. askabadensis, Mich. St. about 3 ft.: upper lvs. linear-lanceolate, whorled: fls. 5-8, hanging amongst the uppermost lvs.. about 1 in. long, bell-shaped, pale yellow-green. Cent. Asia. B.M. 7850. G.C. III. 31:238; 45:184. Gn. 01, p. 256. G.M. 45:745. R.H. 1903:180. J.H. III. 44:293. F. S. R. 1:134.— F. conica, Hort. Lvs. in a rosette: fls. bell-shaped, pale yellow outside and bright yellow inside. Greece.—F. pontica, Wahl. St. tall, 1 ½ ft., leafy at middle, the lvs. broadly lanceolate, lower ones opposite: fls. yellow-green, margined and tipped red, the segms. bearing nearly orbicular nectaries. Asia Minor. Gn.W. 21:407.—F. tuntiina, Heldr. St. 8-10 in.: lvs. long and glaucous: fls. 4-6, bell- shaped, about 1 in. across, intense dark maroon. Greece. Gn.W. 23:435.—F. ziihnii, Hort. Fls. bell-shaped, rather large, brown, checkered with green inside and streaked with yellow outside. Wilhelm Miller. CH
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Species
About 100 specieswp. Selected specieswp:
Formerly placed here:
- Erythronium multiscapoideum (as F. multiscapoidea)
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References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
- w:Fritillaria. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
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