Fritillaria imperialis, the crown imperial, imperial fritillary or Kaiser's crown, is a species of flowering plant in the lily family Liliaceae, native to a wide stretch from the Anatolian plateau of Turkey, Iraq and Iran to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern India and the Himalayan foothills. It is also widely cultivated as an ornamental and reportedly naturalized in Austria, Sicily, and Washington State, USA. The common names and also the epithet "imperialis", literally "of the emperor", refer to the large circle of golden flowers, reminiscent of an emperor's crown.
Fritillaria (fritillaries) is a genus of spring flowering herbaceous bulbous perennial plants in the lily family (Liliaceae). The type species, Fritillaria meleagris, was first described in Europe in 1571, while other species from the Middle East and Asia were also introduced to Europe at that time. The genus has about 130–140 species divided among eight subgenera. The flowers are usually solitary, nodding and bell-shaped with bulbs that have fleshy scales, resembling those of lilies. They are known for their large genome size and genetically are very closely related to lilies. They are native to the temperate regions of the Northern hemisphere, from the Mediterranean and North Africa through Eurasia and southwest Asia to western North America. Many are endangered due to enthusiastic picking.
The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fair amount of morphological diversity despite genetic similarity. Common characteristics include large flowers with parts arranged in threes: with six colored or patterned petaloid tepals arranged in two whorls, six stamens and a superior ovary. The leaves are linear in shape, with their veins usually arranged parallel to the edges, single and arranged alternating on the stem, or in a rosette at the base. Most species are grown from bulbs, although some have rhizomes. First described in 1789, the lily family became a paraphyletic "catch-all" (wastebasket) group of petaloid monocots that did not fit into other families and included a great number of genera now included in other families and in some cases in other orders. Consequently, many sources and descriptions labelled "Liliaceae" deal with the broader sense of the family.
Fritillaria persica is a Middle Eastern species of flowering plant in the lily family Liliaceae, native to southern Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, Palestine and Israel. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental and naturalized in the Lazio region of Italy. It is the sole species in Fritillaria subgenus Theresia.
Fritillaria uva-vulpis is a bulbous perennial plant belonging to the genus Fritillaria and native to eastern Turkey, north-western Iraq and western Iran. They are mainly found in the wooded foothills of the Zagros, where they grow in damp meadows and cornfields between 900 and 1800 m above sea level.
Fritillaria orientalis is a Eurasian species of monocotyledonous plant in the lily family Liliaceae. It was described by Johann Friedrich Adam in 1805, based on specimens collected in Ossetia.
Fritillaria graeca is a European plant species in the lily family Liliaceae. It is native to the Balkans. Some older literature says that the plant can also be found in Serbia, but all these collections are of var. gussichiae, now regarded as a distinct species called Fritillaria gussichiae.
Fritillaria acmopetala, the pointed-petal fritillary, is a species of flowering plant in the lily family Liliaceae, native to rocky limestone mountain slopes in the Middle East. It was described by the Swiss botanist Pierre Edmond Boissier in 1846.
The Lilioideae are a subfamily of monocotyledon perennial, herbaceous mainly bulbous flowering plants in the lily family, Liliaceae. They are found predominantly in the temperate and colder regions of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly East Asia and North America. The subfamily includes two tribes. They are of economic importance, particularly the lilies and tulips.
Tulipa humilis is a species of flowering plant in the lily family, found in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Turkey, Iran, and the North Caucasus region of Russia. The flowers are pink with yellow centers. Its preferred habitat are rocky mountain slopes. It is known by several other names in horticulture.
The taxonomy of Liliaceae has had a complex history since the first description of this flowering plant family in the mid-eighteenth century. Originally, the Liliaceae or Lily family were defined as having a "calix" (perianth) of six equal-coloured parts, six stamens, a single style, and a superior, three-chambered (trilocular) ovary turning into a capsule fruit at maturity. The taxonomic circumscription of the family Liliaceae progressively expanded until it became the largest plant family and also extremely diverse, being somewhat arbitrarily defined as all species of plants with six tepals and a superior ovary. It eventually came to encompass about 300 genera and 4,500 species, and was thus a "catch-all" and hence paraphyletic taxon. Only since the more modern taxonomic systems developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) and based on phylogenetic principles, has it been possible to identify the many separate taxonomic groupings within the original family and redistribute them, leaving a relatively small core as the modern family Liliaceae, with fifteen genera and 600 species.
Fritillaria montana is a European species of flowering plant in the lily family Liliaceae, native to southern and eastern Europe: France, Italy, Greece, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, European Russia.
Fritillaria gussichiae is a European plant species in the lily family Liliaceae, native to Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, and Greece.
Fritillaria macedonica is a European species of flowering plant in the lily family Liliaceae, native to Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia.
Fritillaria crassifolia is a Middle Eastern species of bulb-forming flowering in the lily family Liliaceae. It is native to Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon.
Edward Martyn Rix is a British botanist, collector, horticulturalist and author. Following completion of a PhD on Fritillaria at Cambridge University, he worked in Zurich, Switzerland and at the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley. Hhe is the author of many books and articles on plants and horticulture and is the editor of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London.
Fritillaria assyriaca is a bulbous herbaceous perennial plant occurring in a region stretching from Turkey to Iran. It is a species in the genus Fritillaria, in the lily family Liliaceae. It is placed in the subgenus Fritillaria.
Fritillaria sewerzowii is a perennial herbaceous bulbous plant, distributed in alpine areas of central Asia. It is a species in the genus Fritillaria, in the lily family Liliaceae. It is placed in the subgenus Korolkowia.
Fritillaria reuteri is a perennial herbaceous bulbous plant, distributed in Turkey and Iran. It is a species in the genus Fritillaria, in the family Liliaceae. It is placed in the subgenus Fritillaria.
