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Fritillaria
caucasica
Fritillaria
caucasica was described in 1805 from specimens collected
around the springs of
Constantinomontanas, particularly on Beshtau, an outlier of the
Caucasus, near
Pyatigorsk; later the area became popular with the Russian aristocracy
who came
to take the waters, and with army officers on leave from fighting the
Chechens,
who came to enjoy the spa society; Lermontov described the view from
Pechorin’s
lodgings in A Hero of
our Time, in the story Princess Mary “..to the
west lies
Beshtau, with its five blue peaks, like the last cloud of the dying
storm”.
This
small, dark-flowered fritillary is easily recognised by its long,
slender
style, thin purple anther filaments and few leaves, which are usually
only 3 or
4 in number. A good
specimen is a very
beautiful if unshowy plant, with a tall slender stem and a single
rather
rounded flower, curving in at the mouth, with a blue-grey plum-like
bloom
outside, dark-reddish purple inside. A lovely example, which originated
from
seed from Leningrad
Botanical garden,
was painted by Rory McEwen,
and is shown in the Edinburgh
catalogue of his botanical
paintings, plate 73.
Fritillaria
caucasica has been found from the northern Caucasus,
westwards to northern Turkey
near Ladik on the Black Sea coast,
and eastwards to
Lenkoran in Azerbaijan
and in NW Iran, near the
border north of Tabriz. It is a plant of subalpine
meadows, openings in pine forest and shady,
moist, peaty rock ledges on limestone in drier areas. I
have not seen living specimens from high
meadows of the main range of the Caucasus,
where F. latifolia
and F.
collina are frequent, but I have seen F. caucasica on the
grassy slopes above lake
Erevan,
and in grassy places among Pinus
sylvestris near Sarikamiş.
The
most perfect forms of Fritillaria
caucasica have glabrous styles and filaments,
but papillose styles and filaments are commoner over all the southern
part of
the species range. Plants
with thicker,
papillose styles, and flowers which are pale greenish or yellowish
inside, are
common in parts of northeastern Turkey
and Azerbaijan;
they appear to be
intermediates between F.
caucasica and F.
assyriaca
or F. pinardii. They also differ from pure
caucasica
in
having more leaves and more cylindric, less rounded flowers.
In
May 1970 I studied in detail the fritillaries on Tahir Dag in NE
Turkey. No
fewer than six species grow on this pass,
close to one another, but mostly separated.
Fritillaria
caucasica is
found on
stable saddles which support open grassland with oxlips and buttercups,
kept
ungrazed and cut for hay; F. armena
is found in the bare stony soil in
hollows
where snow lies late, and it is in places accompanied by F. michailovskyi; F. assyriaca grows on loose earthy
slopes and screes, among large umbellifers and
other herbs; an
intermediate with tall
stems, slightly channelled leaves and dark flowers with thick styles
grows in
sparse grassland, intermediate between the habitats of caucasica and
assyriaca and combines characters of
these two. I have
seen similar plants fron near Sarikamis and the slopes of mount
Ararat. The sixth species recorded from Tahir dag is F. crassifolia
subsp. crassifolia,
which is rare and confined to mobile screes.
Another
intermediate is common in Armenia
and also occurs in NE Turkey; this
has narrowly
bell-shaped flowers, greenish inside, slender entire styles, and a
shorter stem
than Fritillaria
caucasica. Both these
now occur in areas where one or other parent is absent, and can
increase
vegetatively as well as by seed.
Fritillaria
armena var. lucida was described by
Haussknecht & Bornmuller from northern Turkey
near Amasya, and is similar
to the collection from Ladik, made by Tobey. It is ususual in that the
flowers
were described as being without the usual glaucous bloom, but otherwise
is
typical F. caucasica. It is a fine plant
which would be worth introducing to cultivation.
Fritillaria
caucasica grows best in a cool position and a rich, peaty
but well-drained
soil, without too much drying in winter.
It is very hardy, growing as it does on
the mountains above Erzurum,
and although, in
cultivation, it may emerge in winter, it can survive hard frost. It is
very
slow to increase vegetatively, so should be raised from seed, if
possible from
a wild source.
Fritillaria
caucasica J.F.
Adam in Weber & Mohr,
Beitr. Naturk. 1:51
(1805).
Syn.
F. tulipifolia
Bieb., Fl. Taur. Cauc. 1: 270(1808).
F.
armena Boiss.
var. lucida Hausskn. & Bornm.
in Mitt.
Thür. Bot. Ver. n.s.20: 47(1905).
Bulb
to 2cm across, bulbils not seen. Stem
10-20cm, smooth. Leaves
glaucous,
lanceolate, 2-4, rarely to 6, all alternate,the lowest
3-10 x 0.8-2cm, the rest
shorter and narrower.
Flower solitary, purplish-black, with a
grey
bloom outside, not tessellated, dark purple or sometimes greenish
inside,
rounded campanulate, usually
narrowed at
the mouth, with the tips of the tepals spreading.
Tepals 2.2-3cm, rarely to 3.7cm long,
5-12mm
wide, the inner slightly wider, 6-14mm.
Nectary 4-5 x 1mm, linear-lanceolate,
green, at the base of the
tepal. Filaments
10-18mm, slender,
smooth or sparsely papillose, usually purplish.
Style 9-17mm, undivided, slender, smooth
or sparsely papillose. Capsule
cylindric, not winged.
S.
Russia near Pyatigorsk,
Georgia,
Armenia,
N & NE Turkey, NW Iran, Azerbaijan,
in alpine and subalpine
meadows, clearings in pine or oak
forest and on limestone rock ledges,
flowering in April to June.
Extract
from Martyn Rix’s forthcoming Monograph.
©2008
Martyn Rix
Type: Russia, ad thermas
Constantinomontanas [in promontoris, Caucasi borealis], Mussin-Puschkin
(holo. LE, iso. BM).
Chromosome compliment 2n = 24
(Khaniki, G. B. 2002. Chromosome Numbers of all Iranian Species of Fritillaria caucasica
Group (Liliaceae) in Nucleus 45(3): 103-108.)
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