Fritillaria camschatcensis

Fritillaria camschatcensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Order:	Liliales
Family:	Liliaceae
Subfamily:	Lilioideae
Tribe:	Lilieae
Genus:	Fritillaria
Species:	F. camschatcensis
Binomial name
Fritillaria camschatcensis (L.) Ker-Gawl.
Synonyms
Amblirion camschatcense (L.) Sweet Fritillaria camschatcensis f. flavescens (Makino) T.Shimizu Fritillaria camschatcensis var. flavescens Makino Fritillaria saranna Stejneger Lilium camschatcense L. Lilium nigrum Siebold Lilium quadrifoliatum E.Mey. ex C.Presl Sarana edulis Fisch. ex Baker

Fritillaria camschatcensis is a species of flowering plant native to northeastern Asia and northwestern North America, including northern Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, northern Japan, and the Russian Far East (Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands). It has many common names, including Kamchatka fritillary and Kamchatka lily.

It is also called rice lily, northern rice-root, or (misleadingly) Indian rice or wild rice, because of the rice-like bulblets that form around its roots.

Description

Fritillaria camschatcensis produces bulbs with several large fleshy scales, similar to those of commercially cultivated garlic. Leaves are lanceolate, up to 10 cm long, borne in whorls along the stem. Stem is up to 60 cm tall, with flowers at the top. Flowers are spreading or nodding (hanging downwards), dark greenish brown to brownish purple (chocolate colored), sometimes mottled with yellow. The flowers have a characteristic foul smell, and are pollinated by flies drawn to the offensive odor.

See also

• List of plants known as lily

External links

• USDA Plants Profile
• Photo of the Chocolate Lily
• European Garden Flora, Vol. 1

• 
  an illustration showing the flower
• 
  Yellow-flower form
• 
  Flowers in Mount Haku, Japan