Fritillaria

"Fritillary" redirects here. For the brush-footed butterflies, see Fritillary (disambiguation).

Fritillaries
Fritillaria montana flowers
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
(unranked):	Monocots
Order:	Liliales
Family:	Liliaceae
Subfamily:	Lilioideae
Genus:	Fritillaria L.
Species
About 100, see text

Fritillaria is a genus of about 100 species of bulbous plants in the family Liliaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name is derived from the Latin term for a dice-box (fritillus), and probably refers to the checkered pattern, frequently of chocolate-brown and greenish yellow, that is common to many species' flowers. Collectively, the genus is known in English as fritillaries; some North American species are called missionbells.

Description and uses

Fritillaria crassifolia showing the characteristic features of most fritillaries: nodding flowers with some amount of brown and a checkerboard pattern

They often have nodding, bell- or cup-shaped flowers, and the majority are spring-flowering. Most species' flowers have a rather disagreeable scent, often referred to as "foxy," like feces or wet fur.^[1] The Scarlet Lily Beetle (Lilioceris lilii) eats fritillaries, and may become a pest where these plants are grown in gardens.

Several species (such as F. cirrhosa and F. verticillata) are used in traditional Chinese cough remedies. They are listed as chuān bèi (Chinese: 川貝) or zhè bèi (Chinese: 浙貝), respectively, and are often in formulations combined with extracts of Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica). F. verticillata bulbs are also traded as bèi mǔ or, in Kampō, baimo (Chinese/Kanji: 貝母, Katakana: バイモ). F. thunbergii is contained in the standardized Chinese herbal preparation HealthGuard T18, taken against hyperthyroidism.

Most fritillaries contain poisonous alkaloids such as imperialin; some may even be deadly if ingested in quantity. But the bulbs of a few species – e.g. Checker Lily (F. affinis) or Yellow Fritillary (F. pudica) – are edible if prepared correctly. They are not generally eaten in large amounts however, and their edibility is therefore still somewhat debatable.

At least one species, F. assyrica, has a very large genome. With approximately 130,000,000,000 base pairs, it equals the largest known vertebrate animal genome known to date – that of the Marbled Lungfish (Protopterus aethiopicus) – in size.

The emblematic and often unusually-colored fritillaries are commonly used as floral emblems. The Snake's Head Fritillary (F. meleagris) is the county flower of Oxfordshire (UK) and the provincial flower of Uppland (Sweden) where it is known as kungsängslilja ("Kungsängen lily"). In Croatia this species is known as kockavica, and the checkerboard pattern of its flowers is held to be the inspiration for the šahovnica pattern on Croatia's coat of arms. The Kamchatka Fritillary (F. camschatcensis) is the floral emblem of Ishikawa Prefecture and Obihiro city in Japan. Its Japanese name is kuroyuri (クロユリ), meaning "dark lily". F. tenella is the floral emblem of Giardino Botanico Alpino di Pietra Corva, a botanical garden in Italy.

Fritillaria is also used as an herb in Traditional Chinese Medicine, known by the Chinese name Chuan Bei Mu, and latin, Bulbus Fritillariae Cirrhosa. In one study Fritillaria modulated airway inflammation by suppression of cytokines, IgE, histamine production, and eosinophilic accumulation along with increased interferon-gamma production in tests on lung tissue. ^[2]

Selected species

Fritillaria involucrata

Fritillaria lusitanica

Fritillaria rhodia

Fritillaria sewerzowii

Fritillaria tubiformis

Fritillaria acmopetala – Lebanese Fritillary Fritillaria affinis – Checker Lily Fritillaria agrestis – Stinkbells Fritillaria anhuiensis S.C.Chen & S.F.Yin Fritillaria armena Boiss. Fritillaria assyriaca Fritillaria atropurpurea – Purple Fritillary, Spotted Fritillary, Spotted Mountainbells, Spotted Missionbells Fritillaria biflora – "chocolate lily" Fritillaria brandegei Eastw. Fritillaria camschatcensis – Kamchatka Fritillary, Kamchatka Lily, Rice Lily, Skunk Lily, Outhouse Lily, Dirty Diaper, Northern Rice-root, "chocolate lily", "Indian rice", "wild rice" Fritillaria caucasica Adams Fritillaria cirrhosa D.Don Fritillaria conica Boiss. Fritillaria crassicaulis S.C.Chen Fritillaria crassifolia Boiss. & A. Huet Fritillaria dagana Turcz. ex Trautv. Fritillaria dajinensis S.C.Chen Fritillaria davidii Franch. Fritillaria davisii Turrill Fritillaria delavayi Franch. Fritillaria drenovskii Degen & Stoj. Fritillaria dzhabavae A.P.Khokhr. Fritillaria eastwoodiae – Butte County Fritillary, Eastwood's Fritillary Fritillaria eduardii Regel Fritillaria ehrhartii Boiss. & Orph. Fritillaria epirotica Turrill ex Rix Fritillaria euboeica Rix Fritillaria falcata – Talus Fritillary Fritillaria fusca Turrill Fritillaria gentneri – Gentner's Fritillary Fritillaria gibbosa Boiss. Fritillaria glauca – Siskiyou Fritillary, Siskiyou Missionbells Fritillaria graeca Fritillaria grandiflora Grossh. Fritillaria grayana Reichenb.f. & Baker Fritillaria gussichiae (Degen & Dörfl.) Rix Fritillaria hispanica Fritillaria imperialis – Kaiser's Crown, Crown Imperial Fritillaria involucrata All. Fritillaria karelinii Fischer ex D.Don Fritillaria kotschyana Herb. Fritillaria kurdica Boiss. & Noë Fritillaria latifolia Willd. Fritillaria liliacea – Fragrant Fritillary Fritillaria lusitanica Wikstr. Fritillaria lutea Mill. Fritillaria macedonica Bornm. Fritillaria maximowiczii Freyn

Fritillaria meleagris – Snake's Head Fritillary, Checkered Daffodil, Frog-cup, Guinea-hen Flower, Leper Lily, kockavica (Croatian) Fritillaria meleagroides Patrin ex Schult.f. Fritillaria messanensis Raf. Fritillaria michailovskyi Fomin Fritillaria micrantha – Brown Fritillary, Brown Bells Fritillaria monantha Migo Fritillaria montana Hoppe Fritillaria obliqua Ker Gawl. Fritillaria ojaiensis – Ojai Fritillary (sometimes included in F. affinis) Fritillaria olgae Vved. Fritillaria ophioglossifolia Freyn & Sint. Fritillaria orientalis Fritillaria pallidiflora Fritillaria persica – adıyaman (Turkish) Fritillaria pinetorum – Pinewoods Fritillary, Davidson's Fritillary Fritillaria pluriflora – Adobe Lily Fritillaria pontica Wahlenb. Fritillaria przewalskii Maxim. Fritillaria pudica – Yellow Fritillary, "yellowbells" Fritillaria purdyi Eastw. Fritillaria pyrenaica Fritillaria raddeana Regel Fritillaria recurva – Scarlet Fritillary Fritillaria regelii Losinsk. Fritillaria rhodia A.Hansen Fritillaria rhodocanakis Orph. ex Baker Fritillaria roylei Fritillaria ruthenica Wikstr. Fritillaria sewerzowii Regel Fritillaria sichuanica S.C.Chen Fritillaria sinica S.C.Chen Fritillaria skorpilii Velen. Fritillaria striata – Striped Adobe Lily Fritillaria stribrnyi Velen. Fritillaria taipaiensis P.Y.Li Fritillaria tenella Fritillaria thunbergii Miq. Fritillaria tortifolia X.Z.Duan & X.J.Zheng Fritillaria tubiformis Gren. & Godr. Fritillaria tuntasia Heldr. ex Halácsy Fritillaria unibracteata P.K.Hsiao & K.C.Hsia Fritillaria uva-vulpis Fritillaria ussuriensis Maxim. Fritillaria verticillata Fritillaria viridea Kellogg Fritillaria walujewii Regel Fritillaria yuminensis X.Z.Duan Fritillaria yuzhongensis G.D.Yu & Y.S.Zhou

Formerly placed here:

• Erythronium multiscapoideum (as F. multiscapoidea)

References

1. ^ "explanation of foxy odor of Fritillarias". http://stephenwarrington.com/2010/04/foxy-fritillaria-michailovskyi/. 
2. ^ Yeum HS, Lee YC, Kim SH, Roh SS, et.al., Fritillaria cirrhosa, Anemarrhena asphodeloides, Lee-Mo-Tang and cyclosporine a inhibit ovalbumin-induced eosinophil accumulation and Th2-mediated bronchial hyperresponsiveness in a murine model of asthma, Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol. 2007 Mar;100(3):205-13. PMID: 17309526.

External links

• Flora Europaea: Fritillaria
• Flora of North America: Fritillaria
• Flora of China: Fritillaria
• Treatment of California Fritillaria from the Jepson Manual
• New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
• Fritillaria used in Chinese medicine