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Common name: Himalayan Fritillary • Hindi: Kakoli • Tamil: Kakoli • Malayalam: Kakoli • Telugu: Kakoli • Kannada: Kakoli • Sanskrit: Kakoli, Ksirakakol, Ksirasukla, Payasya;
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Bulbous perennial herb up to 70 cm tall with bulbs 2-3 cm in diam; leaves alternate, opposite or in whorls of 3-6, linear-lanceolate, often acuminate; flowers solitary or 2-4 together usually subtended by 3 leafy bracts, nodding, 4-6 cm long, campanulate with oblong to elliptic-oblong tepals which are yellowish green to brownish-purple, base dark purple on outside, often spotted with red on outside; stamens 2-3 cm long; style 3-lobed; capsule broadly oblong, 25-35 mm long, seeds many.
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Fritillaria roylei Hook. from Kashmir: Fritillaria roylei Hook., Hooker’s Icon. Pl. 9: t. 860 1852.  
Common name: Himalayan Fritillary
Bulbous perennial herb up to 70 cm tall with bulbs 2-3 cm in diam; leaves alternate, opposite or in whorls of 3-6, linear-lanceolate, often acuminate; flowers solitary or 2-4 together usually subtended by 3 leafy bracts, nodding, 4-6 cm long, campanulate with oblong to elliptic-oblong tepals which are yellowish green to brownish-purple, base dark purple on outside, often spotted with red on outside; stamens 2-3 cm long; style 3-lobed; capsule broadly oblong, 25-35 mm long, seeds many.
Common in Khillenmarg meadow in Kashmir, photographed in May. I found two types of flowers those with dull greenish-yellow flowers and those with bright red spots on outside.

A synonym of Fritillaria cirrhosa D.Don as per The Plant List.
Family Liliaceae.


Yes … I also read this, but ignored it as Plant List seems to have more errors that true facts. The plant looks very different from F. cirrhosa, and as such followed Flowers of Himalaya, which treats them distinct.


Yes my supervisor also told that cirrhosa and roylei are different.


Remarks: This page created considering views in Flora of Pakistan & WCSP


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few more species from Himachal:
Thank you all for helping me with the identification of some of the species that I posted. This should be my last post for the day. Its called Jungli lasun locally (Kullu), because the rhizome is bulbous, resembles garlic. Sorry again for posting not so good pictures.


Fritillaria roylei


Thank you Sir for identifying the plant for me. This one of the over-exploited plants in the Himachal, and this year it fetched a price of Rs. 900-1100 per kilo of dry weight.


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Fritillaria roylei Hook. (fr. Churdhar) : VG-JUL-16 : 7 posts by 6 authors. Attachments (3).
Sharing some images of a nodding Liliaceae memberFritillaria roylei – flowering on the brink of a rolling slope dominated by Rhododendron campanulatum in the higher reaches of Churdhar.
Photographed on 26 May 2015.


Yes … Very good photographs.


Happy to see this species. A summer bloomer in alpines here in Uttarakhand but not common.


Very beautiful pics …, this was quite abundant at few places..!!


yes


Thanks, … All your postings and pictures are superb and incomparable.



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Fwd: Capsules of Fritillaria ‘roylei’ in Kashmir : 1 post by 1 author. Attachments (5)
Here with some images of the young (green) capsules of what I understand to be Fritillaria roylei.
However, it seems SOME authorities consider this now to come within F.cirrhosa.
I note there have been assorted comments about this matter on eFI.
IF there is a strong feeling that the Fritillary from the NW Himalaya should be recognised as a separate taxon, the answer is to provide ADDITIONAL evidence to support this.
The taking of GOOD QUALITY close-ups of this Fritillaria and posting them will help.
Ultimately, it is the job of taxonomists to decide whether a taxon warrants describing as a VARIETY or SUB-SPECIES of a given species or being considered a separate SPECIES.
Inevitably, there are times when taxonomists do not agree themselves, interpreting the variation in different ways. Sometimes, non-taxonomists do not agree with their findings.  Sometimes taxonomists do make mistakes or get it wrong.
Just because a subspecies or separate species are RELEGATED to a lower taxon does not automatically mean the findings are wrong – though with the advent of digital photography, more images are becoming available and more can view them thanks to sites such as eFI.  This provides more scope to question the findings of taxonomists.
In the case of Fritillaria roylei, this was, previously understood to be a separate species rather than included within F.cirrhosa. I have not seen the NEW evidence to support this conclusion.  Would someone within this group share the evidence with us, rather than just disagreeing, STRONGLY.  A mistake MIGHT have been made but one MUST check the EVIDENCE rather than simply disputing/ disagreeing with it.
THEN, if one STILL disagrees, COLLECT more evidence to support your POSITION. The opportunity, through digital photography. readily exists to OBTAIN more evidence by locating more colonies of the Fritillary in the NW Himalaya, taking high quality images of the plant at all stages of development. Then compare with what images exist of typical Fritillaria cirrhosa taken in the Eastern Himalaya.
Also seek out SPECIALIST GROUPS in the West.  Fritillaries are popular amongst specialist growers. There is a Fritillaria Group see: http://www.fritillaria.org.uk/.  On it they continue with the separation of F.cirrhosa  and F.roylei  with images posted by …  Amongst the membership of the group will be professional taxonomists with an interest in Liliaceae.  Get in touch with them and send quality images to support the case, if one considers these to be separate at a species level.
In the mean-time, I attach these images.
I shall collect what information and evidence I have to help with RESOLVING this issue.  IF there is STRONG evidence to support the relegation of F.roylei to a synonym of F.cirrhosa, then this MAY have to be accepted. On the other hand it may prove that having F. cirrhosa subsp. roylei is a better treatment?
I am NOT a Fritillaria specialist, so can only find and submit evidence.  It is for those with specialist knowledge of the genus who are best placed to assess the variation that exists.
Unless one has relevant training and familiarity with a genus then interpreting what constitutes a separate species can be difficult to understand.
I have long understood the incomprehension of keen specialist gardeners who do not understand that separation of species can be based on what to them are miniscule/obscure botanical detail.  To them, flower colour, dimensions and other characteristics are more important.   These attributes of a plant are often of limited value in taxonomic terms.
It is ESSENTIAL that botanists collaborate INTERNATIONALLY and NATIONALLY – otherwise a narrow and restricted view can develop.


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An image scanned in from a slide taken in the early 1990s whilst I was working as a consultant to The Royal Government of Bhutan.
The specimens (No. 28) in the min-herbarium of the National Institute of Traditional Medicine, Thimphu was collected on Yak La, Linghsi district in July 1990.
Known medicinally as “karpo cheek thup” or variations on this transliteration from Tibetan.
Flora of Bhutan records this from screes and gravel @ 4570-4880m in Bhutan and Sikkim.
Not recorded in Nepal nor further to the NW along the Himalaya.
The flowers are drooping, outside flushed tawny or olive-brown, inside yellowish-green chequered dark red. Perhaps an adventurous member can ascend high passes in Sikkim and secure us some close-up photos of its flowers?  Typically in flower May to July.
I have never come across it in the wild myself.
Note the long stem (mostly underground), the leafy part being short. This grows under similar conditions to Eriophyton wallichii which I posted images of recently.
Both qualify as ‘Solifluction Acrobats’.  Any idea what this means – note the length of underground ‘stems’?


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SK1203 14 JUNE 2018 : 16 posts by 3 authors. Attachments (6)- around 600 kb each.

Location: Sandakphu, India
Date: 13 May 2018
Altitude: 12000 ft.
Habit : Wild

Any idea about family? 


My guess is Liliaceae


I could not find a match at /species/a—l/l/liliaceae

Fritillaria cirrhosa D. Don  ??


To me looks different from

Any idea what can it be? We are unable to find the id.

Fritillaria cirrhosa bud? Just a wild guess.

I guessed so. Or could it  be Gagea nakaiana Kitag. ??

Does not matches with images of Gagea nakaiana as per
Also does not matches with images at Fritillaria cirrhosa D.Don 
May be some other species of Fritillaria given herein.
Also check Fritillaria bhutanica (syn. of Fritillaria delavayi Franch. as per POWO) as per

Sorry ! Could not match with any of them.

Also check all species from A to Z at http://www.fritillaria.org.uk/fritillaria-species-a.html

Lloydia sp.??


I do not think so as per Lloydia


OK …!


I saw your post on Gagea. Could this be too Gagea?


…, i your plant leaves are much broader with many nerves and no basal leaf so i don’t think its any Gagea sp. Check with Fritillaria sp. and Iphigenia sp.


Fritillaria cirrhosa D.Don ??

No, does not match with Fritillaria cirrhosa


This should be Fritillaria cirrhosa D.Don, common in Sandakphu (Darjeeling), in flower closeup photo stigma is three lobed and style is black dotted. In Bhutanese known as cika, tsika.



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Rohtang Pass, Himachal Pradesh– July’10; Churdhar wildlife Sanctuary, Shimla; Fritillaria cirrhosa – efloraofindia | Google Groups Fwd: Identification needed – efloraofindia | Google Groups

 

 


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