Fritillaria 2014

[art600]

The unusually warm weather has meant the early emergence of Fritillaria.

I am very pleased with my Frit karelinii - they started to flower at end November.

[Mark Griffiths]

very nice, Arthur!

[fixpix]

Wow, nice ones!
Frits are on the top of my bulb list (maybe just under lilies).
I'll have to remember the name and see where I can also get me some

Warm weather... same thing over here. I got a full plastic box of F. persica seedlings that I just saw emerging from the dirt a couple days ago.

[olegKon]

beautiful, Arthur

[Steve Garvie]

Very nice indeed!!!

My small collection of rhinos have only just broken cover.

[fermi de Sousa]

Very nice indeed!!!

My small collection of rhinos have only just broken cover.

Sounds like a good opportunity for you to use another one of your wildlife pics, Steve, 
cheers
fermi

[ashley]

My small collection of rhinos have only just broken cover.

Steve, my advice would be to stand very still.  Apparently their eyesight isn't great 

Beautiful F. karelinii and a great start to the season Art

[Steve Garvie]

Sounds like a good opportunity for you to use another one of your wildlife pics, Steve, 
cheers
fermi

Hmmm, what have you started Fermi?

Steve, my advice would be to stand very still.  Apparently their eyesight isn't great 

Beautiful F. karelinii and a great start to the season Art

It's too late Ashley, I think I've been spotted:-




Not to worry as my daughter Alice is the Rhino-whisperer:-


(Upper image is a Southern White Rhino at Lake Nakuru, N.P. Kenya.
Lower image is of a large male Black Rhino and the fearless Alice at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya)

Sorry for intruding on your thread Arthur. I hope my Frit. karelinii turn out as good as yours!

[art600]

Steve

When you have photos as good as yours to show.....

[krisderaeymaeker]

I am very pleased with my Frit karelinii

No need to explain Arthur . We see the evidence . Very very nice.

[Cyril L]

I am very pleased with my Frit karelinii - they started to flower at end November.

Arthur, a lovely 'autumn flowering' fritillary!   Unusual to see F. karelinii flowering so early.

The only one in bud here is Frit crassifolia.

[Lesley Cox]

And so you should be pleased Arthur, it is beautiful (and difficult?). The spotting is delightful.
Super rhino pictures. Where are the Wildlife threads? More please Steve.

It's way out of season but I wanted to ask confirmation or otherwise of the frit below, from FGAGS seed, as F. monantha. It flowered here (NZ) very late (November), the first time but another the same also flowered a couple of weeks earlier, from the previous year's sowing.

[art600]

Cyril

I found this picture of one that flowered early December.

[Cyril L]

Lesley, I have never grown Frit. monantha but there was some email correspondence regarding a plant I submitted as Frit aff. monantha to the Joint Rock, subsequently identified as Frit. walujewii.

This is from Martyn Rix himself (does it fit your plant? maybe):

I have little knowledge of F. monantha Migo. Here is my preliminary account, for what it is worth.
 
All good wishes, Martyn.
 
FRITILLARIA MONANTHA
 
History  Fritillaria monantha was described by Hisao Migo (b. 1905), in 1939 from specimens collected in south-eastern Hunan, in the Tien Mu mountains. This was a time when the Japanese were consolidating their power across Korea, Manchuria and eastern China, and studying the floras of these areas. I have never seen this species growing and the description here is taken from notes of herbarium specimens and the account in Flora Sinica.
Recognition and Variation Fritillaria monantha can be recognised by its combination of large flowers with nectaries 6–10mm long, broad often whorled leaves, deeply divided style and 6–8mm wide wings on the capsule. The flowers are greenish or white variously tessellated or spotted with purple.
Subspecies, varieties and synonyms  The daunting list of synonyms below is taken from Flora Sinica. The illustration of F. hupehensis  which accompanies the original description shows long narrowly lanceolate leaves, a whorl of 4 at the base, a whorl of 3 in mid stem and 3 bract leaves with coiled tips, and a large, rather narrow heavily tessellated flower. The illustration of F. huangshanensis which accompanies the original description shows a 2-flowered specimen, the leaves linear to 15mm wide, not cirrhose, all whorled, with 3–5 in a whorl; the flowers square at the base and heavily tessellated.
Geography, distribution and habitat  Found scattered through China in Anhui, (Huangshan);  Henan (San Chen co.), Hubei, Jiangxi, E. Sichuan and Zhejiang, in forests and moist places on limestone hills and floodlands, at 100-1600m. Var. tonglinensis from Tong ling
Cultivation  This species should grow well under the same conditions as F. thunbergii.
 
Fritillaria monantha Migo. in Journ. Shanghai Sci. Inst., sect. 3, 4: 139(1939). Syn.  F. guizhouensis Y. K. Yang & al.
F. huangshanensis Y. K. Yang & C. J. Wu in Acta Bot. Bor.-Occ. Sinica 5(1): 41(1985)
F. huangshanensis f. tonglingensis (S. C. Chen & S. F. Yin) Y. K. Yang & Y. H. Zhang
F. hupehensis P.K. Hsiao & K. C. Hsia in S.C. Chen & K. C. Hsia, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 15(2):39(1977)
F. lichuanensis P. Li & C. P. Yang
F. monantha var. ningguonica Y. K. Yang & M.M. Fang
F. monantha var.tonglingensis S. C. Chen & S. F. Yin
F. ningguoensis S. C. Chen & S. F. Yin; F. puqiensis G.D. Yu & C. Y. Chen
F. qimenensis D. C. Zhang & J. Z. Shao in Acta Phytotax. Sin. 29(5) 474(1991)
F. thunbergii Miq. var. puqiensis (G.D. Yu & C. Y. Chen) P. K. Hsiao & S. C. Yu.
F. wanjiangensis Y. K. Yang et al.
 
Bulb to 2cm across. Stem 20-60cm (-100cm).  Leaves oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, 5-12 cm long, 1.5-3cm wide, opposite, whorled or alternate, apex especially of the bract leaves often curled. Flowers usually solitary, or up to 4, tubular bell-shaped, square at the base, inside pale greenish-yellow, tessellated, sometimes heavily with purple or reddish-purple, the tessellations showing through; scent not recorded. Tepals 3.5-5cm long, the inner to 2cm wide, oblong-obovate to oblong, the outer narrower, around1cm wide. Nectary large, conspicuous on the outside of the tepal. Filaments 20mm, smooth or slightly papillose. Style 20mm, the branches 3-8mm, smooth. Capsule shortly cylindric, 1.5-2cm, wings around 6-8mm wide.
E. China in Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Sichuan and Zhejiang, in forests and moist places on limestone hills and floodlands, at 100-1600m, flowering from March to June.

[Cyril L]

Cyril

I found this picture of one that flowered early December.

Arthur, very early flowering again.  All rhinopetalum frits are nice but F. karelinii is not the easiest to grow.  Well done.