Hazel grouse (plant)

The scientific Latin generic name Fritillaria comes from lat. fritillus - a glass for throwing dice , in the shape of a corolla ^{[5] [6]} .

The Russian name is based on the variegation (ripples) of the flower pattern of the most common species in Russia - Russian grouse ^[7] .

Grouse - perennial plants , overwintering and partly propagated through underground bulbs . The bulb consists of several (two — four — six or more) fleshy, wide scales, in some species not grown together (semi-unique bulbs), in others - whole or half fused (tunic); some of the scales carry kidneys in their bosom , developing into new bulbs. Grouse - typical ephemeroids . Their bulbs are renewed annually, made up of bottom scales, usually they do not have integumentary scales. In some representatives of the genus, the bulbs are imbricated, friable, with numerous small scales; among hazel grouse of Kamchatka and other forest East Asian species, the scales are strongly swollen and look like rice grains. They easily separate from the bottom and take root. In this way, they look like onion-kids. In fact, these are the swollen bases of the bottom scales, in which the upper part has remained thin and dried out, as evidenced by the scar. The replacement bulb in these species is carried out on a thick stolon . They have no retracting roots , and the bulbs lie at the surface of the soil. In plants of arid habitats (for example, in the grouse Severtsov ( Fritillaria sewerzowii Regel )), the bulb is covered with dried scales of the past. Numerous retracting roots of these species are able to draw the bulb to a depth of 25 cm and thus protect the renewal bud from drying out. The substitute bulb is formed inside the mother ^[8] .

An onion stem grows from a bulb with more or less numerous, oblong-lanceolate or narrow-linear leaves located scattered or whorled along the stem. Bracts are erect (as in the imperial grouse ( Fritillaria imperialis Wikst. )), Sometimes spirally twisted (for example, in the Russian grouse ( Fritillaria ruthenica L. )).

Large drooping flowers appear one at a time or several (with an umbrella , a panicle ) on the top of the stem. Perianth is simple, bright in color (yellow, red, white, violet), often spotted, six-petalled, bell-shaped or cubar-like, falling off; elongated or almost round, all almost identical tepals either converge with their tops, or stick out to the sides; at the base of each leaf there is a honey hole ( nectary ) in the form of a triangular, oval or round recess, often bulging outward, why the lobe is bent at right angles, and the flower is cubar or cylindrical. There are six stamens ; anthers are attached to the threads by a base. Pestle with a filiform, whole or tripartite ( stigmas ) column and with a three-rooted polyspermous ovary .

The fruit is a six-sided capsule , three-nosed, winged or wingless, with numerous flat seeds .

Grouse grows in temperate regions of both hemispheres. In Russia and neighboring countries there are 26 species ^[5] , most often in the Caucasus and Central Asia , as well as in the European part of Russia ( forest-steppe and steppe ), Western Siberia and the Far East ^[9] .

They are found in meadows , in the steppes, among shrubs , along mountain slopes in the subalpine and alpine zones ^[9] .

In European Russia, three species of hazel grouse grow wildly ( Russian grouse ( Fritillaria ruthenica Wikstr. ), Oriental grouse, or thin ( Fritillaria orientalis Adams ) and a typical species of the genus Grouse chess ( Fritillaria meleagris L. )): the most common is the grouse , small plant up to half a meter tall; the stem is covered with leaves, of which the lower and upper are brought together two to three, and the middle leaves between them (three to five) are scattered throughout the stem; the lower leaves are narrowly linear, and the upper ones are almost filiform, with very thin, spirally surrounded, tenacious tips; the top three to four ply leaves protrude above one or two flowers. The flower is dark red, with a vague checkerboard pattern, drooping. The bulb is small, of two fleshy fused scales, in the sinuses of which there is one onion.

In the gardens, the Grouse imperial ( Fritillaria imperialis L. ) and Grouse are often bred as early spring plants. The first species comes from Central Asia . It is a tall plant (up to ¾ meter), with numerous oblong- lanceolate and linear-lanceolate leaves and with bright yellowish-red flowers collected by an umbrella under a bunch of apical leaves; several even terry and yellow-leaved varieties of this species are known in culture: prolifera , variegata , rubra flore pleno , inodora , etc. The second species is found in the southern part of Central Russia. It is a small plant (up to 30 cm); leaves (in an amount of four to nine) are wide; one or two flowers with purple whitish-checkered perianth; in culture there are white, terry varieties of this genus.

Grouse is used as ornamental and medicinal plants .

Many species are poisonous because they contain alkaloids .

Despite the bitterness , the bulbs of some species are edible. Thus, the bulbs of Kamchatka grouse ( Fritillaria camschatcensis ( L. ) Ker Gawl. ), Found in the northern part of the Asian and American coasts of the Pacific Ocean , Kamchadals and Indians of North America were eaten. Kamchadals, who called the plants “sarana”, dug bulbs with a hoe or took them from the pantry of the house-vole ( Microtus oeconomus ). Dried bulb scales strung on ropes were exported from Kamchatka , where plants grew in abundance, to America and sold to the Indians, who called them “northwest rice” ^[8] .

Tubers contain a lot of starch ; they were eaten instead of bread . Thus, the tubers of grouse-shaped , Edward , and Radde , growing in Central Asia, were used ^[10] .

Many types of hazel grouse are used in Chinese and Tibetan medicine ^[10] .

Hazel grouse requires loose earth and a sunny place; propagated by bulbs; a plant in the summer, after the stems turn yellow, removed from the ground, cleaned and planted again to a depth of 30 cm and the same distance from each other.

According to The Plant List database, the genus includes 141 species ^[11] . Some of them:

• Lozina-Lozinskaya A. S. Ryabchik - Fritillaria // Flora of the USSR / Botanical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences; Editor-in-chief and editor of the fourth volume of Acad. V.L. Komarov. - L .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1935. - T. IV. - S. 302-320.

• Hazel grouse (rast. Sem. Liliaceae) - an article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia .
• Hazel grouse, plants from the lily family // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Bondarenko L. How to grow species of hazel grouse. Floriculture Magazine, N 5 and N 6, 2002