Fritillaria recurva and its relatives
Jane McGary (Mon, 23 Apr 2018 11:08:39 PDT)

Some years ago I bought a packet of seed from Phyllis Gustafson of
Medford, Oregon, identified as Fritillaria micrantha. Eventually one of
the two plants raised flowered and appeared to be Fritillaria recurva,
so I asked Phyllis about it, and she told me she had the seed from Frank
Callahan, a native tree specialist (and expert on Sasquatch). I knew
Frank had a population of the so-called Fritillaria gentneri on his
property, and this "species" forms variable swarms, being a natural
hybrid of F. recurva and F. affinis, so I hoped for a more gentneri-like
plant eventually.

That must have been more than 10 years ago, and finally the hoped-for
one has flowered, next to and two weeks after its recurva sibling. The
two stems of the former bear the typical large, bell-shaped gentneri
flowers (not recurving) with purple-brown tessellation on a
reddish-greenish-buff background. Both plants have numerous large
non-flowering basal leaves (characteristic of the affinis group), so
perhaps there will be a nice clump of them in ensuing years.

Also in flower from this group are Fritillaria affinis itself in the
open garden, and in the bulb house, a fine stand of Fritillaria
eastwoodiae (really just F. recurva with half-size flowers) and a single
stem of Fritillaria viridea. I think Fritillaria ojaiensis is probably
in the same group, but it hasn't deigned to flower this year. I never
have obtained seed of F. micrantha, though.

These tall, multi-flowered fritillarias range down the Pacific Coast of
North America from British Columbia to southern California, with the
most diversity in southern Oregon and northern California.

Jane McGary

Portland, Oregon, USA

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