More than 100 years later, we finally figured out the hierarchy of this flower

In early June this year, I saw Fritillaria thunbergii in the wild for the first time in Hebei. As soon as I saw its appearance, I was attracted by its beauty. In fact, I had seen Fritillaria thunbergii many years ago. It was a cultivated plant widely used in gardening - Crown Fritillaria.

Crown Fritillary | Archibald Tuttle / Wikimedia Commons

The appearance of the crown fritillaria is very different from the round-leaved fritillaria I saw in Hebei. If you don't have a deep understanding of plants, you would never think that they are related. This also shows that the large group of fritillaria plants is very diverse in form. The branch root fritillaria we are going to introduce today actually looks very different from the traditional fritillaria.

Fritillaria fasciata | James Steakley / Wikimedia Commons

The four seasons of Fritillaria thunbergii

Fritillaria sewerzowii is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Fritillaria, Liliaceae. It grows in the high mountains of Central Asia at an altitude of 1,000-3,000 meters, often in meadows, rocky slopes or bushes in areas with few trees. It may be distributed in Xinjiang, my country. Fritillaria sewerzowii is 20 to 50 cm tall and has a bulb with a diameter of about 5 cm below the ground. Its leaves are fleshy and large.

Every early spring, the corms of the Fritillaria fasciata will slowly grow new branches and leaves, which will break through the soil, and some flower buds will emerge in the axils of the leaves on the upper part of the stem. When the time is right, these flower buds will bloom into bright flowers from bottom to top. The flower colors of different plants will also be slightly different, such as yellow-green, yellow, orange, carmine and other colors.

Fritillaria truncatum | Daniel78 / Wikimedia Commons

After a period of time, the blooming flowers gradually wither, and the flowers return to their original appearance of green grass. Some of them carry immature fertilized fruits, waiting for time to ripen them more fully; or they just stand with bare stems, accepting the warmth and a little sadness brought by the sun. In any case, the fat and plump big leaves are still enjoying the gift of the sun, and are inputting the sun's energy into the underground bulbs day by day, accumulating strength for the next year's bloom. In autumn, when the weather gets cooler, the above-ground parts of the branch root Fritillaria will all wither, and the underground bulbs will also begin to dormant, waiting for the arrival of the next spring.

Fruit of the Fritillaria fasciata | James Steakley / Wikimedia Commons

More than 100 years of debate

The genus name of Fritillaria comes from the Latin word "Fritillus," which means a box for dice, and here it is likely used to describe the square, dice-shaped flowers of Fritillaria plants. In fact, the flowers of traditional Fritillaria plants do look like this, but the flowers of Fritillaria striata do not look like dice-shaped flowers at all.

There is a little story about its classification. In 1868, Eduard August von Regel first named and published Fritillaria sewerzowii. Five years later, he re-established the new genus Korolkowia with Fritillaria sewerzowii, and the scientific name of the branch root Fritillaria also became Korolkowia sewerzowii. Only one year later, John Gilbert Baker divided the Fritillaria genus into 10 subgenera based on the characteristics of the bulb, style, nectary form and capsule petals, and the newly established genus Korolkowia was also downgraded to a subgenus of Fritillaria. The branch root Fritillaria sewerzowii became the only species in it because of its outstanding appearance.

Flowers of the Fritillaria fasciata | James Steakley / Wikimedia Commons

Since then, scholars have been divided into two camps, one insisting that Korolkowia is a genus, and the other insisting that Korolkowia is a subgenus of Fritillus, and neither side is convinced. It was not until 2005 that people confirmed the scientific validity of Korolkowia as a subgenus of Fritillus through genetic analysis, and this debate after more than a century finally came to an end.

There was a small episode during this period. In 1886, Reger also published a plant called Korolkowia discolor that looked very similar to Fritillaria sewerzowii. According to the literal meaning, this name may refer to the fact that its flowers have two colors, but Fritillaria sewerzowii itself is a plant with multiple colors. Sure enough, Korolkowia discolor was later treated as a synonym of Fritillaria sewerzowii.

Cultivation of Fritillaria truncatula

Although the Fritillaria scabra grows in the high mountains of Central Asia, people have actually started to cultivate it a long time ago. At present, we can easily see it in European gardens, and it has also been introduced and planted in a few areas in China. People have introduced and planted Fritillaria scabra in Beijing and observed some of its growth characteristics.

Drawing of Fritillaria scabra in 1878 | Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817 - 1911) / Wikimedia Commons

When it is cultivated in the open field in Beijing, it starts to germinate around March 10, starts to bloom at the end of March, and reaches its peak flowering period around April 9, and the flowering period lasts until April 16. Its single plant flowering period can last for 12 days, and the overall flowering period can last for 16 days. The number of flowers per plant is very large, and the ornamental value is also very high. The germination rate of the bulbs of the Fritillaria fasciata is as high as 83.3%, but the flowering rate is only 46.7%, which may be due to its inability to adapt to the climatic conditions in Beijing. In general, the Fritillaria fasciata can grow in Beijing, but it may not bloom in its most beautiful appearance. Its cost-effectiveness in gardening may not be as good as that of its other relatives.

I hope that in the near future, we will also be able to see its beautiful appearance blooming among the flowers on the roadside.

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward