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Liliaceae FAMILY

Fritillaria imperialis

Fritillaria imperialis

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The bulb is poisonous raw[1, 2], it contains low concentrations of a toxic alkaloid[3, 4].

Cultivation Details

HabitBulb
Growth—

Fritillaria imperialis is a very hardy plant and the bulbs will withstand soil temperatures down to at least -10°c[5]. Easily grown in a moderately fertile soil[6]. Prefers a heavy soil without any disturbance, not even hoeing[7, 8]. Requires a well-drained soil and a sunny position[8, 6, 9] or the shade of deciduous trees or shrubs[6]. Succeeds in drier soils and is drought tolerant once established[10]. Plants succeed in most fertile soils, avoiding pure chalk, heavy clay and boggy sites[11]. A very ornamental plant, there are some named varieties[11]. A malodorous plant, smelling of fox[9]. The bulb has a pungent foxy odour[9]. The flowers smell of wet fur and garlic[12]. Bulbs should be planted 10 - 12 cm deep in July[7] on their side with sharp sand beneath them to ensure that they do not rot[8, 9].

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as ripe in a well-drained, sandy or gritty soil in a cold frame, it should germinate in the spring[7]. Protect from frost[13]. Stored seed should be sown as soon as possible and can take a year or more to germinate[13]. Sow the seed quite thinly to avoid the need to prick out the seedlings. Once they have germinated, give them an occasional liquid feed to ensure that they do not suffer mineral deficiency. Once they die down at the end of their second growing season, divide up the small bulbs, planting 2 - 3 to an 8cm deep pot. Grow them on for at least another year in light shade in the greenhouse before planting them out whilst dormant. Division of offsets in August[7]. The larger bulbs can be planted out direct into their permanent positions, but it is best to pot up the smaller bulbs and grow them on in a cold frame for a year before planting them out in the autumn. Bulb scales[3]. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Fritillaria+imperialis>

Pollinators

Bees

References

  1. [1]A Modern Herbal. — Grieve. · Penguin · 1984 · ISBN 0-14-046-440-9 ↩︎Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.
  2. [2]The Plant Wealth of Iraq. — Chakravarty. H. L. ↩︎It is surprising how many of these plants can be grown in Britain. A very readable book on the useful plants of Iraq.
  3. [3]Lilies and Related Plants. — RHS Lily Group. ↩︎Lots of interesting snippets about plants in the family Liliaceae (in the old, broad sense)
  4. [4]Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (Including the Supplement). — Chopra. R. N., Nayar. S. L. and Chopra. I. C. · Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. · 1986 · ISBN - ↩︎Very terse details of medicinal uses of plants with a wide range of references and details of research into the plants chemistry. Not for the casual reader.
  5. [5]The New Plantsman. Volume 1, 1994. — Matthews. V. · Royal Horticultural Society · 1994 · ISBN 1352-4186 ↩︎A quarterly magazine, it has articles on Himalayacalamus hookerianus, hardy Euphorbias and an excellent article on Hippophae spp.
  6. [6]Bulbs — Phillips. R. and Rix. M. · Pan Books · 1989 · ISBN 0-330-30253-1 ↩︎Superbly illustrated, it gives brief details on cultivation and native habitat.
  7. [7]RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 — F. Chittendon. · Oxford University Press · 1951 · ISBN - ↩︎Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaced in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [ 200 ]).
  8. [8]Hardy Bulbs.; Including Half-hardy Bulbs and Tuberous and Fiberous-rooted Plants — Grey. C. H. · Williams & Norgate. · 1938 · ISBN - ↩︎Rather dated now, but an immense work on bulbs for temperate zones and how to grow them. Three large volumes.
  9. [9]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  10. [10]The Dry Garden. — Chatto. B. · Dent · 1982 · ISBN 0460045512 ↩︎A good list of drought resistant plants with details on how to grow them.
  11. [11]Perennial Garden Plants — Thomas. G. S. · J. M. Dent & Sons, London. · 1990 · ISBN 0 460 86048 8 ↩︎A concise guide to a wide range of perennials. Lots of cultivation guides, very little on plant uses.
  12. [12]Scented Flora of the World. — Genders. R. · Robert Hale. London. · 1994 · ISBN 0-7090-5440-8 ↩︎An excellent, comprehensive book on scented plants giving a few other plant uses and brief cultivation details. There are no illustrations.
  13. [13]Growing from Seed. Volume 2. — Rice. G. (Editor) · Thompson and Morgan. · 1988 · ISBN - ↩︎Very readable magazine with lots of information on propagation. An interesting article on Ensete ventricosum.
  14. [14]Forest Flora of Srinagar. — Singh. Dr. G. and Kachroo. Prof. Dr. P. · Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh · 1976 · ISBN - ↩︎A good flora of the western Himalayas but poorly illustrated. Some information on plant uses.
  15. [15]Tanaka's Cyclopedia of Edible Plants of the World. — Tanaka. T. & Nakao S. · Keigaku Publishing; Tokyo · 1976 · ISBN - ↩︎The most comprehensive list of edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.
  16. [16]Plants for Human Consumption. — Kunkel. G. · Koeltz Scientific Books · 1984 · ISBN 3874292169 ↩︎An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of Latin names with a brief list of edible parts.
  17. [17]A cross-cultural analysis of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh (India) medicinal plant use — Gairola S. et al · 2014 · http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2014.06.029 ↩︎
  18. [18]The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants — Chevallier. A. · Dorling Kindersley. London · 1996 · ISBN 9-780751-303148 ↩︎An excellent guide to over 500 of the more well known medicinal herbs from around the world.
  19. [19]Ethnobotanical investigation of traditional medicinal plants commercialized in the markets of Mashhad, Iran — Amiri M.S. & Joharchi M.R. · 2013 ↩︎Brief information on the traditional medicinal uses of 267 species of plant in Iran
  20. [20]Indian Medicinal Plants; An Illustrated Dictionary — Khare C.P. (Ed.) · Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg · 2007 · ISBN 978-0-387-70637-5 ↩︎
  21. [21]Traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of genus Fritillaria - a review — Rashid I. & Yaqoob U. · 2021 · https://doi.org/10.1186/s42269-021-00577-z ↩︎