Persian Fritillary: Purple-Black Flowers, Ornamental Characteristics Introduced
Persian Fritillary, a plant of the genus Fritillaria in the lily family, native to western Asia and southern Turkey. A perennial bulbous plant, the plant grows 30-60 cm (12-24 inches) tall, and each plant can produce up to as many as 30 conical or bell-shaped flowers, the flowers about 3/4 inch long, ranging in color from deep purple to greenish brown. Persian Fritillary is one of the species commonly grown in European gardens; one Fritillaria variety named 'Adiyaman' has taller plants and more flower spikes than other varieties, and this variety has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Persian Fritillary
Fritillaria is 1 genus of the lily family. Perennial herbs; bulbs deeply buried in the soil, usually composed of 2-3 white powdery scales, rarely with many scales. Stems erect, unbranched. Leaves usually cauline, opposite, whorled or scattered, the apex sometimes strongly curled. Flowers generally radially symmetrical, solitary and terminal or several arranged in a raceme, less often an umbel, with leaf-like bracts; tepals 6, free, often more or less connivent, colored, sometimes with checkered spots, with a sunken nectary groove near the base. Stamens 6, borne at the base of the tepals; anthers nearly basifixed or dorsifixed, 2-locular; style 3-lobed or not lobed, stigma exserted beyond the stamens; ovary superior, 3-locular, each locule with 2 longitudinal rows of ovules. Fruit a capsule, with 6 angles, the angles often winged. Loculicidal dehiscence, with many flat seeds. There are more than 60 species, distributed in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, especially most numerous in Central Asia, the Mediterranean coast and North America. China has more than 30 species, produced in all provinces and regions except the southern provinces and regions, with the most wild species in Xinjiang and Sichuan. Fond of growing on riverbanks, grassy slopes, gravel crevices or under forests.
Persian Fritillary
Morphological characteristics:
Perennial herbs; bulbs deeply buried in the soil, covered by a bulb tunic, usually composed of 2(-3) white powdery scales (within the scales grow 2-3 pairs of small scales), less often composed of many scales and many surrounding rice-grain-like small scales; the former bulbs nearly ovate or spherical, the latter often more or less rosette-shaped. Stems erect, unbranched, a portion located underground. Basal leaves long-stalked; cauline leaves opposite, whorled or scattered, the apex curled or not curled, the base half-clasping the stem. Flowers larger or somewhat smaller, usually bell-shaped, nodding (but after fertilization the pedicel gradually turns upward, becoming erect at the fruiting stage), radially symmetrical, rarely slightly bilaterally symmetrical, solitary and terminal or several arranged in a raceme or umbel, with leaf-like bracts; tepals oblong, nearly spatulate to nearly narrowly ovate, often connivent, with a sunken nectary groove near the base on the inner side; stamens 6, anthers nearly basifixed or dorsifixed, 2-locular, dehiscing inward; style 3-lobed or nearly not lobed; stigma exserted beyond the stamens; ovary 3-locular, each locule with 2 longitudinal rows of ovules, axile placentation. Capsule with 6 angles, the angles often winged, loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds numerous, flat, with narrow wings at the margin.
Persian Fritillary