Fritillaria hybrids
Jane McGary (Sun, 24 Apr 2005 10:41:16 PDT)

I seem to have some hybrids among California Fritillaria species raised
from home-grown seed. I would post pictures of them on the wiki if I knew
how to sign in, but I have not tried to post anything since it changed, and
apparently I need a password which I do not know, or else I don't know
exactly how to enter my user name.

Anyway, I apologize if anyone has grown plants from my garden seeds of
Fritillaria purdyi and/or Fritillaria biflora, and now has seedlings in
flower that don't look like what they are supposed to be. It appears that
both groups of plants produced at least a few hybrid seeds. The one with F.
purdyi as a seed parent is quite large, flowering probably 2 years before
the other seedlings in its group, with 10 flowers on a stout stem --
impressive! -- but the flowers have a greenish ground color rather than the
creamy white of F. purdyi, though they are marked like that species. The
ones with F. biflora as a seed parent are similar, but smaller, with only 2
or 3 flowers per stem on first flowering; they have typical purdyi
checkering rather than the "tips and stripes" of biflora. Some apparently
pure biflora seedlings are flowering in the same group.

I will search around and see if I can find out how to access the wiki
during the next few days, to show these interesting plants. Interesting but
disappointing to some, no doubt, because biflora is dead common and purdyi
is much sought after.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon