Checkered Lily
Halq’emeylem Name
This Eurasian lily looks similar to Péth’oyes, but is not generally thought of as edible.
Latin Name
Fritillaria Meleagris
Pronunciation
About Checkered Lily
“Fritillaria meleagris, commonly called checkered lily, is a bulbous perennial that is native to river flood plains in Europe where it is frequently seen growing in large colonies. Plants are somewhat dainty in appearance, featuring solitary (less frequently 2-3), drooping, 2” long, bell-shaped flowers which are checkered and veined with reddish-brown, purple, white and gray atop slender stems growing to 15” tall. Blooms in April. Linear, lance-shaped, grass-like green leaves are widely-spaced on the stems. Also commonly called guinea-hen flower because of the resemblance of the mottled flower color to a guinea hen. In the right environment, it will live long and naturalize well.
“Genus name is from the Latin word fritillus meaning dice box in reference to the checkerboard pattern on the petals of Fritillaria meleagris.
“Specific epithet means spotted like a guineafowl.” (MBG)
Connections
Shakespeare
“And in his bloodthat on the ground lay spill’d,a purple flower that sprung upchequer’d with white,Resembling well his pale cheeks,and the bloodWhich in round dropsupon their whiteness stood.—Venus and Adonis”Excerpt From: Botanical Shakespeare Gerit Quealy
Also called snake’s head fritillary, it appears on the title page of Gerard’s Herball, in the hand of an allegorical figure that has been proposed (but not accepted) as a likeness of William Shakespeare (Rennicks, 2015). (For more rebuttals, see here and here). According to Mark Griffiths, snake’s head fritillaries had been imported to England from France twenty years before the publication of Venus and Adonis and were a gardening sensation, promoted by Gerard, at the time when Shakespeare had Adonis turn into a fritillaria meleagris instead of an anemone, as previous stories had done (Brown, 2015).
Indigenous Knowledge
Eurasian relative of chocolate lily and rice root. It has not been selected for as a food source.
Gallery
References
Images: Ed | Teresa Carlson
Brown, Mark (2015). Shakespeare: writer claims discovery of only portrait made during his lifetime.” The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/may/19/shakespeare-writer-claims-discovery-of-only-portrait-made-during-his-lifetime)
Dugdale, John. “The Long Tradition of Finding Portraits of Shakespeare” (2015). The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/22/shakespeares-botanical-portrait-what-have-they-dug-up-now
Integrated Taxonomic Information System. (n.d.). Fritillaria meleagris L.. Retrieved from https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=810191#null
The Many Faces of William Shakespeare (Guardian Letters), The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/may/22/many-faces-of-william-shakespeare
Missouri Botanical Garden. (n.d.). Fritillaria meleagris. Retrieved from http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=281768&isprofile=1&basic=Fritillaria%20Meleagris
Rennicks, Rich (2015). “Shakespeare’s Face?” The New Antiquarian: The Blog of the Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America. (https://www.abaa.org/blog/post/shakespeares-face)