711. FRITILLARIA HERMONIS Liliaceae. Martyn Rix

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1 711. FRITILLARIA HERMONIS Liliaceae Martyn Rix Summary. Fritillaria hermonis Fenzl, from Syria and Lebanon is illustrated. Its history and ecology are discussed, and related species are compared. Instructions for its cultivation are given. Fritillaria hermonis was described by Fenzl from specimens collected in 1855 by Theodore Kotschy near the summit of Mount Hermon, but had been collected earlier by Aucher-Éloy (Aucher 2180), in Pierre Rémi Martin Aucher-Éloy was one of the first botanists to make important collections in Turkey and the near East. He was born in Blois in 1793, and initially studied pharmacy, before studying botany under A.-L. de Jussieu and Desfontaines in Paris. After his printing and publishing business failed in 1830, he moved to Istanbul, intending to start a newspaper, but when that failed too, he began to collect specimens of plants and animals across the Orient. He died in Julfa, near Isfahan in 1838 and his specimens were sold to the Muséum d Histoire Naturelle in Paris: duplicates of many of the specimens are in the Herbier Boissier in Geneva and other herbaria, and Boissier published many new species in Plantae Aucherianae in (Ghazanfar, 1996). This species has been the subject of many confusions and name changes. Most authors followed Boissier s Flora Orientalis (1884), and included it in a very variable Fritillaria crassifolia Boiss. & Huet. Boissier distinguished the dwarf form from Hermon as var. hermontis (Fenzl) Boiss. It appears that though Kotschy spelled the name hermonis on his herbarium labels, Klatt, when describing the species, and later Boissier, both spelled the name hermontis. Later Turrill & Sealy (1980) identified this collection from Syria, (Davis 6130 illustrated here), with the Iranian Fritillaria olivieri Baker, while the rest of the specimens from Lebanon remained under F. crassifolia. My own studies of herbarium specimens and living material, (Rix, 1975), caused me to recognise F. hermonis and divide it into two subspecies, subsp. hermonis for the high altitude, dwarf and heavily tessellated, reddish-brown form from the top of Mount Hermon, and subsp. amana Rix, for the taller, largely green-flowered forms in the Lebanon, the Antilebanon and in the Amanus mountains in Turkey. Curtis s Botanical Magazine 2011 vol. 28 (3): pp The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

2 Extensive collections by Bob and Rannveig Wallis both in Lebanon, Syria and around the base of Mount Hermon have shown that there is a cline from the widespread low altitude forms to the high altitude form, with small, darker flowered forms found as low as 1700 m (Fig. 1); these closely resemble plants from near the summit around 2800 m. Furthermore, careful study of the nectaries shows distinct differences; the Lebanon plants have ovate-lanceolate nectaries with a pointed apex, while those from Turkey have circular or ovate nectaries, rounded at the apex. Turkish and north Syrian populations haveshining greenleaves, whereasthose from Lebanon and southern Syria have glaucous leaves, as shown here. These distinctions, combined with leaf colour and habitat type, led Wallis & Wallis to propose keeping the name Fritillaria hermonis for all plants from Lebanon and the Antilebanon range in Syria, and using the name Fritillaria amana (Rix) Wallis & Wallis (2002) for the plants from Turkey; the type of subsp. amana Rix was from Turkey and nearby Jebl Nusairia in northern Syria, a distinct collection from near Karamanmaraş, commonly known as F. crassifolia South East Turkey Form in the horticultural trade, collected by E. K. Balls and Gourlay in 1934 (EKB 1034), (Balls, 1935), and still cultivated by specialists. Fritillaria hermonis can be recognised by its alternate, glaucous leaves and usually pale green, but sometimes almost wholly brown, flowers with an ovate-lanceolate, green nectary. F. crassifolia is distinct in its dwarf habit, glabrous style and linear nectary; it grows on loose screes in Turkey, usually on limestone but rarely on serpentine. The rather similar species, F. graeca Boiss. & Held., has blackish flowers and a narrowly lanceolatenectary. Both F.hermonis andf. amana have papillose styles, unlike other similar species, which have glabrous styles. There is some variation in flower colour, with dark, chestnutbrown flowers with a band of green (fascia) found on and around Mount Hermon. Plants from Lebanon, such as those from the Cedars, tend to have narrower acute tepals, while those from Syria, in the Antilebanon (illustrated here) have broader, blunt tepals. Firtillaria hermonis grows on limestone screes, less often on basalt, on stony slopes and in abandoned fields, from 1600 to 2800 m. It is widespread in Lebanon, mainly in the southern part of the Lebanese mountains, as far north as Les Cèdres near Bsherri and in Syria, on the Antilebanon range and on Mount Hermon. 170 The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2011.

3 Plate 711 Fritillaria hermonis anne farrer

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5 The specimen from which the painting shown here was made, was collected by P.H. Davis in 1943 (Davis 6130) above Bludan in the Antilebanon range. The bare slopes have small, terraced fields and snow lies late in hollows in the limestone. Peter Davis ( ) is best known as editor of Flora of Turkey, and for his extensive collections throughout Turkey. During the war, when he served in intelligence, based in Alexandria, he slept in the tombs of Petra and stayed with the Arab legion in Jordon (Davis, 1947). He was in Lebanon and Syria in May and June 1943, when he collected both herbarium specimens and bulbs of Fritillaria hermonis, as well as a yellow-flowered, cushion-forming Ajuga. (Davis, 1944). Cultivation. Several clones of Fritillaria hermonis have proved to be long-lived in cultivation, probably because they tolerate pot culture well. The collection illustrated here, Davis 6130, produces numerous relatively large bulbils. A collection by Oleg Polunin, 5319 from Lebanon collected in 1959, has also survived well, as has a low-growing variety from Les Cèdres, Albury, Cheese & Watson 963. Recent collections by the Wallises and particularly RRW 95.45b, have much darker-coloured flowers (Wallis & Wallis, 2002). Some of the more robust forms from the Lebanon have been found to be triploids, and probably seldom set seed, in the wild, no doubt relying on disturbance by the plough to disperse the bulbils. The bulbs have done well in a rather sandy, chalky soil, and will happily remain in the same pot for many years if they are not watered with too much fertiliser. If fertilised heavily and repotted regularly, large stocks can be built up. Watering should begin in late September or October in northern Europe, and cease as soon as the leaves begin to fade, usually by late April. Care should be taken to avoid botrytis on the leaves or stems in warm, wet weather, and, for this reason, the plants are best grown under glass. Fritillaria hermonis Fenzl., in Kotschy, Pl. Syr. Exsicc. (1855). Type. Lebanon, Hermon, in cacuminis regione frequens, ft, June 26, Kotschy 184 (holotype G, isotypes K, P, TCD). Fritillaria hermontis Fenzl ex Klatt, Hamburger Garten und Blumenzeitung 16: 442 (1860). Fritillaria crassifolia var. hermontis (Fenzl.) Boiss., Fl. Or. 5: 183 (1884). Fritillaria hermonis subsp. amana Rix, Kew Bull. 29(4): 647 (1974) pro parte (excluding plants from Turkey and north Syria). The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

6 Fig. 1. Fritillaria hermonis Fenzl. on a scree slope at 1650m on the northeastern slope of Mount Hermon, near Barqash, NW of Qatana, Syria. Photograph: Robert Wallis. Description. Bulbs to 3 cm across, bulbils common. Stem 3 15 cm, smooth. Leaves 4 9, usually 4 5, glaucous, all alternate or the lowest subopposite, the lowest broadly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 4 10 cm cm, the upper linear-lanceolate. Flowers 1 2, rarely 3, nodding, broadly campanulate, green with a glaucous bloom, sometimes reddish-brown with green fascia, (or rarely all dark brown) with a spermatic scent. Tepals cm long, the outer 6 10 mm wide ovate-lanceolate, the inner 8 12 mm wide, obovate or oblanceolate. Nectaries green, ovate-lanceolate, c. 4 mm long, 3 mm wide, 5 mm above the tepal base. Filaments 8 10 mm, sparsely papillose. Style 8 10 m, papillose, the branches 3 4 mm. Capsule cylindrical, not winged. Chromosome number 2n = 24, 36. Distribution. Lebanon, Syria. Habitat. Stabilised screes, stony slopes, abandoned fields, terraces and orchards, usually on limestone, m. Flowering time. April to June. Acknowledgements. Thanks are due to Bob and Rannweig Wallis for their help with this paper. 174 The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2011.

7 Fig. 2. Fritillaria hermonis. A, face view of flower; B, internal view of flower, one outer and two inner tepals removed; C, outer tepal, and D, inner tepal, inner face showing markings and puckered surface; E, stamen with undehisced anther, outer aspect; F, t.s.filament, to show papillae; G, profile view of filament, to show papillae; H, gynoecium; I, apex of stigmatic branch; J, profile of stylar surface, to show papillae. Scale: single bar = 1 mm; double bar = 1 cm. The horizontal bar = 1 cm. Drawn by Andrew Brown from Davis 6130, cultivated at Kew. REFERENCES Balls, E.K. (1935). Plant collecting in Turkey in Asia. Gardeners Chronicle 98(114): Boissier, E. (1884). Fritillaria L. in Flora Orientalis 5: 183. Davis, P. (1944). Through the Antilebanon. Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 69(1): Davis, P. (1947). Plants and experiences in the eastern Mediterranean. Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 69(1): Ghazanfar, S.A. (1996). Aucher-Eloy s plant specimens from the Immamat of Muscat. Taxon 45(4): Rix, E.M. (1975). Notes on Fritillaria (Liliaceae) in the eastern Mediterranean region. 1. & 2. Kew Bulletin 29(4): Turrill, W.B. & Sealy, J.R. (1980). Studies in the genus Fritillaria (Liliaceae). Hooker s Icones Plantarum 39: t & t Wallis, R. & Wallis, R.B. (2002). Reappraising Fritillaria hermonis. The Plantsman (New Series) 1(2): The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew