Appearance
The flower has a chequered pattern in shades of green and purple, or is sometimes pure white. It flowers from March to May and grows between 15–40 cm (6–16 in) in height. The plant has a button-shaped bulb, about 2 cm in diameter, containing poisonous alkaloids. It grows in grasslands in damp soils and river meadows at altitudes up to 800 m (2,625 ft).
Naming
The name Fritillarea comes from the latin fritillus meaning dice-box, and (possibly) referring to the chequered pattern on the flowers, though this derivation has been disputed. The name meleagris means ‘spotted like a guinea fowl’. The common name "snake's head" refers to the somewhat snakelike appearance of the green and brown nodding flower heads. Vita Sackville-West called it "a sinister little flower, in the mournful colour of decay."
Distribution
F. meleagris is native to Europe but in many places it is an endangered species that is rarely found in the wild but is commonly grown in gardens. In Croatia, the flower is known as kockavica and is associated by some with the country's national symbol. It is the official flower of the Swedish province of Uppland, where it grows in large quantities every spring at the meadows in Kungsängen (Kings meadow), just outside Uppsala, which gives the flower its Swedish name, kungsängslilja (Lily of Kings meadow). It is also found in Sandemar strandängar (Sandemar beach meadows), a nature reserve west of the village of Dalarö in the Stockholm Archipelago.
Cultural
Now easily available as an ornamental spring bulb for the garden, it is commonly sold as a mixture of different coloured cultivars. The pure white-flowered variety F. meleagris var. unicolor subvar. alba has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
