Fritillaria camschatcensis
Fritillaria affinis
black lily, Indian rice, Kamchatka fritillary, northern rice-root, rice-root fritillary
checker-lily, chocolate fritillary, chocolate lily, mission bells, rice-root lily
large 6–15; small 30–190.
large 2–5; small 2–20 when tepals mottled, 50 or more when tepals unmottled.
2–6 dm.
1–12 dm.
in 1–3 whorls of 5–9 leaves per node proximally, alternate distally, 4–10 cm, usually shorter than inflorescence;
blade narrowly to broadly lanceolate;
distal leaves usually ± equaling proximalmost leaf.
in 1–4 whorls of 2–8 per node proximally, alternate distally, 4–16 cm, usually shorter than inflorescence;
blade linear-lanceolate to ovate;
distal leaves usually equaling proximalmost leaf.
spreading to nodding, odor unpleasant;
tepals dark greenish brown to brownish purple, sometimes streaked or spotted with yellow, oblong-elliptic to elliptic-obovate, 2–3 cm, apex not recurved;
nectaries obscure, same color as tepals, linear, ± equaling tepal length;
style obviously branched for 2/3 its length, branches longer than 1.5 mm.
nodding, odor not unpleasant;
tepals brownish purple to pale yellowish green, clearly mottled yellow or purple, or unmottled, oblong to ovate, 1–4 cm, apex not recurved;
nectaries yellow, dotted purple, lanceolate, 1/2–2/3 tepal length;
style obviously branched for 1/2 its length, branches longer than 1.5 mm.
cylindric-ovoid.
widely winged.
= 24, 36.
= 24, 36, 48.
Fritillaria camschatcensis
Fritillaria affinis
Coastal Native Americans used bulbs of this species for food. Often the bulbs were dried and later added to other foods, especially soups and fish dishes.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
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- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
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