page_title: Fritillaria
section_title: Subdivision
hierarchical_section_title: Fritillaria / Taxonomy / Subdivision
caption_attribution_description: فارسی: لاله واژگون در کوه دنا
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: The large number of species have traditionally been divided into a number of subgroupings. By 1828, Duby in his treatment of the Flora of France, recognized two subgroups, which he called section Meleagris and section Petilium. By 1874, Baker had divided 55 species into ten subgenera:
  In the 1880s, both Bentham and Hooker (1883) and Boissier (1884) independently simplified this by reducing nine of these subgenera to five, which they treated as sections rather than subgenera. Bentham and Hooker, who recognized more than 50 species, transferred the tenth of Baker's subgenera, Notholirion to Lilium. Boissier, by contrast, in his detailed account of oriental species, recognized Notholirion as a separate genus, whose status has been maintained since (see cladogram). He also divided Eufritillaria into subsections.
  In the post-Darwinian era, Komarov (1935) similarly segregated Rhinopetalum and Korolkowia as separate genera, but Turrill and Sealy (1980) more closely followed Boissier, but further divided Eufritillaria and placed all American species in Liliorhiza. However, the best known and cited of these classification schemes based on plant morphology is that of Martyn Rix, produced by the Fritillaria Group of the Alpine Garden Society in 2001. This listed 165 taxa grouped into 6 subgenera, 130 species, 17 subspecies, and 9 varieties. Rix, who described eight subgenera in all, restored both Rhinopetalum and Korolkowia as subgenera. He also used series to further subdivide subgenera, kept Boissier's four sections, renamed Eufritillaria as Fritillaria, and added subgenera Davidii and Japonica. The largest of these is Fritillaria, while Theresia, Korolkowia and Davidii are monotypic (containing a single species).
  Baker based his classification on the characteristics of the bulb, style, nectary and capsule valves. The large nectaries of Fritillaria have been the focus of much of the morphological classification, while the distinct form of the nectaries in Rhinopetalum were the basis for considering it a separate genus.
caption: Fritillaria Imperialis in Dena, Iran
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