Fritillaria species that don’t quite fit on our other wiki Fritillaria pages are found here. Some of these are plants that aren’t positively identified.
Fritillaria camschatcensis occurs in both North America (northwest Canada, Alaska), Asia (Japan) and Russia (the Kamchatka peninsula). It is late blooming with whorled glossy leaves and dark purple-brown to almost black pendent bell-shaped flowers. The scent of the flowers have been described as "similar to that of cat pee in its pungency" by Rodger Whitlock. It grows in damp places and should be grown in a shady spot that is not hot and dry in summer. Photos by John Lonsdale. Common names are 'rice root', 'rice lily' or 'chocolate lily'
Photographs taken by Richard Haard of plants growing in habitat on the Broughton Archipeligo, British Columbia (except photo 1).
In seed photos by David Pilling, the second of the same seed taken using transmitted light, embryos are not visible, as described in Fritillaria Germination. These seeds were kept cold and moist but did not germinate in 2013. By Spring 2014 embryos had formed, but could only be seen using transmitted infra-red light, as shown in photos 3 and 4. Photo 4 is a magnified selection from photo 3, with a red line down the middle of the embryo. The seed eventually germinated in Spring 2015.
Photograph of commercially supplied bulbs on a 10 mm grid; the bulb on the left is base uppermost; in the foreground tiny offset bulbs can be seen.
Fritillaria latakiensis is an Eastern Mediterranean species that occurs in northwest Syria but also west along the southern Turkish mountains. It is reported to be an easy garden plant if given good moisture and good drainage and a spot that does not dry out too much during the summer. Photos from Mary Sue Ittner.
Fritillaria meleagroides is found in damp meadows from Bulgaria to the Ukraine eastwards to the Altai and north-western China. It grows from 25 to 60 cm and has three to six linear, alternate leaves with large, black-brown solitary bell-like flowers. Photos from John Lonsdale.
There is some variation of flower color and form where populations are large. Photographs below were taken by Andrey Dedov in the Altai Mountains, showing some of the variability.
Fritillaria raddeana is native to Turkmenistan to northern Iran and Kashmir. Photos 1-3 below were taken by Nhu Nguyen at the Strybing Arboretum/San Francisco Botanical Garden. Photos 4-5 were taken by John Lonsdale. The last photo was taken by Paige Woodward who writes that her plants are descended from material collected by Paul Furse in Khorassan province, NE Iran, in 1966. Her plants grow to 40-70 cm (16-28"), bloom in March-April and are hardy to Zone 4.
Fritillaria species - 'pontica' of horticulture. In the autumn I bought Holland bulbs labeled as Fritillaria pontica, however reading up on this European species, the flowers should be green with brownish tips, and shiny green within, or all green. My plants more closely resemble F. olivieri, with the margins of the green tepals edged in brown. Jane McGary thinks they are unlikely to be that species which is rarely grown, but could be Fritillaria caucasica Possibly Fritillaria pontica is more variable than the simple descriptions indicate. Whatever it is, the fat pendant bells made a good show and held their own against more flamboyant tulips growing nearby. (True F. pontica can be recognized by the bulbs, which produce bulblets on the end of short, curved stolons, appearing quite odd compared with other species.) Photos by Mark McDonough.
Fritillaria wabuensis This very small Frit was bought from Chen Yi in China, looking much like the photo in their catalog. Chen Yi's plants are notoriously misidentified, so the identification of this fritillary needs to be verified. The flower is a small nodding bell of an unusual near black color, with undertones of red and a blue-black sheen. The flowers are yellow-green inside. Photo by Mark McDonough, taken May 3, 2004.
Asian fritillaria A-C - Asian fritillaria D-K - Asian fritillaria L-R - Asian fritillaria S-Z - European fritillaria A-O - European fritillaria P-Z - Fritillaria index - North American fritillaria A-L - North American fritillaria M-Z