Snake’s-head Fritillary Fritillaria meleagris (Liliaceae) in Britain: its distribution, habitats and status

Kevin J Walker

doi:10.33928/bib.2021.03.263

Abstract

Snake’s-head Fritillary Fritillaria meleagris L. is a scarce plant of unimproved meadows where it was formerly considered to be a native British species. A review of 593 British sites showed that 80% of British populations were located in other habitats where it had been planted or had established from introductions nearby. Of the 118 populations located in unimproved meadows 53 occurred in floodplain grassland in central and southeast England where it has long been considered to be native. However, recent evidence suggests that it is more likely to be a modern introduction (neophyte). It seems inconceivable that such an attractive plant would have been overlooked in the wild by herbalists in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Furthermore, the rapid growth of introduced populations in meadows in Sweden and England has shown that Fritillary populations in Britain could have reached their present size in the 300 years since they were first recorded in the wild. Historical accounts prove that it was being grown for ornament in large gardens in the sixteenth century, from where it presumably escaped along rivers to colonise meadows downstream. Regardless of its status, however, it remains a much-loved and valued component of the British flora and a flagship species for the conservation of floodplain grasslands.

Highlights

In Britain Fritillaria meleagris L. (Liliaceae), Snake’s-head Fritillary, is a Nationally Scarce plant that was formerly considered to be native in wet, species-rich eutrophic meadows on alluvial soils and gravels in lowland England (King & Wells, 1993; Wells, 1994)
Large concentrations of populations were found in the Midland counties of Leicestershire (n=20), Worcestershire (n=19) and Staffordshire (n=19) and in East Suffolk (n=17) where it has long been known from ancient, unimproved meadows (Trist, 1960, 1978, 1981)
We will possibly never know the true status of F. meleagris in Britain but on balance the evidence points to it being a modern introduction

Summary

Introduction

In Britain Fritillaria meleagris L. (Liliaceae), Snake’s-head Fritillary, is a Nationally Scarce plant that was formerly considered to be native in wet, species-rich eutrophic meadows on alluvial soils and gravels in lowland England (King & Wells, 1993; Wells, 1994). (Liliaceae), Snake’s-head Fritillary, is a Nationally Scarce plant that was formerly considered to be native in wet, species-rich eutrophic meadows on alluvial soils and gravels in lowland England (King & Wells, 1993; Wells, 1994) Most of these populations are, or were, on the floodplains of the River Thames and its tributaries between Cirencester, Oxford and Reading with outlying populations in Suffolk, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and Buckinghamshire, populations occur in floodplain meadows in other regions (Jefferson & Walker, 2019). Away from meadows F. meleagris has been widely planted as an ornamental and naturalises readily in private gardens and semi-wild and wild locations such as on roadsides or in nature reserves Some of these planted populations persist in drier and more shaded habitats than in floodplain meadows in Europe it is often found as a native in woodlands and in relatively dry alpine pastures (Jefferson & Walker, 2019). These populations were gradually cut-off from Continental Europe by rising sea-levels, isostastic adjustments and possibly by tsunamis caused by the Storegga submarine landslide around 8,200 years ago (Coles, 2000)

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