Last week I posted a note about Fritillaria recurva and its relatives, which form a distinct group of western North American species typified by the widespread Fritillaria affinis. One I mentioned was Fritillaria eastwoodiae, which looks like a miniature F. recurva on a tall scape. Near that group of plants I have another cluster which I thought was more F. eastwoodiae, the plants being indistinguishable, but they were only in bud. I was wrong. Today the first flower on the second group opened, and proved to be Fritillaria micrantha, which I'd never seen before. It is native to the western lower elevations of the central Sierra Nevada of California, including Yosemite National Park. Its coloration outside (the lower surface of the tepals) is much like the brown-green F. affinis, but inside it has a pretty pattern with zones of bright yellow. The flower is about 2 cm in diameter and is open, not tubular like F. recurva and eastwoodiae. (By the way, these plants do have labels, which are probably buried by the gravel topdressing. They are planted directly in a raised bed, not confined to pots.) I'd have to search far back in my seedlists to find out how long ago I sowed the seeds of these plants, but it was more than 6 years ago. I wonder if it's just maturity that brought all of them (about 6 individuals) to flower this year, or if our unusually warm December-January was a factor. Certainly some other denizens of the bulb house (which is unheated and open on the sides) are flowering unusually heavily this spring. I'm grateful for that, since there have been a number of visitors to see them, including some new acquaintances who attended a party for Kit Strange, a staff member working in the bulb collection at Kew. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…