Flora of North America species comparison

Fritillaria affinis has one of the broadest geographical distributions of all the North American species of the genus. It is also highly variable, which has resulted in the naming of several supposedly distinct species as well as some infraspecific taxa, all but one of which are in fact only poorly differentiated, and all of which are treated here as synonyms. Among the latter, F. lanceolata var. tristulis may actually merit formal recognition as a variety, but the new combination under F. affinis remains to be made. This entity is restricted to coastal grassland in Marin County, California, and has a perianth that is scarcely if at all mottled, and more than 50 small bulb scales.

Fritillaria affinis has long been known by the name F. lanceolata, which is illegitimate because when Pursh described it, he cited Lilium camschatcense (= F. camschatcensis) as a synonym but did not adopt that epithet. Actually, his synonymic reference was based on a misidentification, even though he stated that an illustration of L. camschatcense from a specimen in Pallas’ herbarium was “an excellent figure” of his F. lanceolata.

Fritillaria affinis has been known to hybridize with F. recurva.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

This species has the widest geographic distribution in the genus. It is easily confused with Fritillaria pinetorum as there is no one consistent, distinguishing trait. These two species are most easily identified in the field, but herbarium specimens can be successfully identified using a combination of flower posture and cauline leaf traits. In F. pinetorum the flowers are almost always erect, although some of the flowers may be ± spreading. In F. atropurpurea the flowers are nodding, with some flowers sometimes ± spreading. The habit of the flowers can be easily confused in pressed specimens, so careful attention to cauline leaf traits works best for them. Fritillaria pinetorum has long proximalmost cauline leaves that surpass the inflorescence, whereas the proximalmost cauline leaves in F. atropurpurea almost never exceed the inflorescence. For accurate identifications, it is best to look at several individuals from a location.

The Lakota tribe used the whole plant of this species as a cancer cure. Plants were pulverized into a salve and applied to scrofulous swellings.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)