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.)

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

This species is sometimes confused with Fritillaria agrestis, which grows in heavier soil and has flowers with an unpleasant odor. Fritillaria roderickii is still recognized by some botanists, but it appears to be little more than a localized flower-color variant of F. biflora var. biflora, and is valued by horticulturists for this reason.

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