Fritillaria dagana reaches a height of 20–35 cm. It produces a single pendant
campanulate flower, brown-violet on the outside, yellowish and mottled inside. The
perianth segments are 4 cm in length and 10–13 mm in width. Leaves are lanceolate, 6–8 cm in length and arranged in a single
whorl of 2–5 in the upper part of the stem, with only the occasional upper leaf more distally. The fruit is an elongated
capsule. The number of chromosomes is 2n = 24.[7][9]
Taxonomy
It was described by
Turczaninow in 1834 near
Lake Baikal in Siberia when he was working there.[1]Baker (1874), who divided Fritillaria into
subgenera, placed F. dagana in
subgenusGoniocarpa, a subgenus later subsumed into Fritillaria.[10] Modern classifications, based on
molecular phylogenetics, place it in Liliorhiza, a subgenus that it predominantly North American. Within Liliorhiza, F. dagana is one of a small number of species found in north west Asia, forming a
grade with the remainder of the subgenus (see
Day et al. 2014Fig. 2). It was originally included in Liliorhiza on account of its multi-scaled bulbs.[7][11][12]
Distribution and habitat
Fritillaria dagana is endemic to southern Siberia, specifically the
Irkutsk, and
Chita regions and the Republics of
Buryatia,
Tuva, and
Yakutia. It is alpine and subalpine in habitat, on the edges of forests edges and grassy slopes.[9][8][13]
Cultivation
Fritillaria dagana blooms from mid June to mid July.
Conservation
The species is endangered by flower picking and is listed in the
red books for the region.[8]