page_title: Fritillaria
section_title: Distribution and habitat
hierarchical_section_title: Fritillaria / Distribution and habitat
caption_attribution_description: English: Distribution map of ten fritillaria species. (Presumed natural spread according to wikipedia sources) Deutsch: Verbreitungskarte von zehn Arten "Fritillaria" in Europa sowie West- und Mittelasien. (Versuch einer Darstellung gemäß der in den jeweiligen Wikipedia Seiten (en,de,ru,fr) angegebenen natürlichen Verbreitung)
context_page_description: Fritillaria is a genus of spring flowering herbaceous bulbous perennial plants in the lily family. 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 name Fritillaria is thought to refer to the checkered pattern of F. meleagris, resembling a box in which dice were carried. Fritillaries are commercially important in horticulture as ornamental garden plants and also in traditional Chinese medicine, which is also endangering some species. Fritillaria flowers have been popular subjects for artists to depict and as emblems of regions and organizations.
context_section_description: Fritillaria are distributed in most temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, from western North America, through Europe, the Mediterranean, Middle East and Central Asia to China and Japan. Centres of diversity include Turkey (39 species) and the Zagros Mountains of Iran (14–15 species). Iran is al so the centre of diversity of species such as F. imperialis and F. persica. There are five areas of particularly active evolution and clustering of species - California, Mediterranean Greece and Turkey, Anatolia and the Zagros mountains, central Asia from Uzbekistan to western Xinjiang and the eastern Himalayas in southwestern China. Fritillaria species are found in a wide variety of climatic regions and habitats, but about half of them show a preference for full sun in open habitats.
  A number of Fritillaria are widely introduced. Cultivated fritillaries (F. meleagris) have been recorded in British gardens since 1578, but only in the wild since 1736, it is likely to be introduced, rather than be endemic. It is greatly diminished there due to loss of habitat, although persistent along the River Thames in Oxfordshire. F. imperialis was introduced into Europe around the 1570s around the 1570s, with Ulisse Aldrovandi sending a drawing to Francesco de' Medici in Florence, famed for his gardens at Villa di Pratolino  in 1578. His friend Jacopo Ligozzi (1547–1627) was also including it in his paintings, as well as F. persica. In Britain, F. imperialis was first seen in the London garden of James Nasmyth, surgeon to King James I in April 1605.
caption: Distribution map of ten Fritillaria species in Europe and western and central Asia
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