Description
The end of the name ‘oides‘ means ‘looks like’, although to my mind this looks nothing like Fritillaria meleagris. It makes a long, tall stem which can reach 70cm tall stem (usually less) crowned with one to eight large, black-brown hanging bells which are polished and shiny. These are golden yellow inside, so heavily tessellated with the same red-brown that they look to be this colour. They are held over a whorled tuft of narrow, blue-green leaves.
Stately in appearance, and remarkably long lasting this is easy in a moist garden spot with good drainage but not too much of a dry spell in summer. It starts into root quite early also if allowed to remain summer-moist. Not difficult but still scarce. Russia.
