Fritillaria cirrhosa Seeds | Tendril-leaf Fritillary

Flat, pale brown, wafer-like Tendril-leaf Fritillary seeds, on a plain background — Tendril-leaf Fritillary (*Fritillaria cirrhosa*): Liliaceae, native to the alpine meadows of the eastern Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau.

LATIN NAME: Fritillaria cirrhosa

COMMON NAME: Tendril-leaf Fritillary

Plant Profile

Tendril-leaf Fritillary is a slender bulbous perennial, twenty to forty centimetres tall, with a whorl of narrow, grey-green leaves whose tips extend into curling tendrils that let the plant scramble through the surrounding grass. In early summer it hangs a single, nodding, bell-shaped flower, pale yellow to greenish, often checkered with purple inside.

It grows in alpine meadows and on shrubby slopes from Yunnan and Sichuan through Tibet to Nepal, Bhutan and northern India, usually between 3,000 and 4,500 metres. It is the source of chuan bei mu, one of the most valued cough medicines in Chinese pharmacy, and wild populations have been heavily dug.

Science & Biotechnology

The bulb contains steroidal alkaloids of the cevanine type, including peimine and peiminine, which have been studied for antitussive and expectorant activity. Those compounds are the pharmacological basis of the herb’s reputation, and they are also the reason the plant is over-collected: a kilogram of dried bulbs can be worth more than most mountain crops.

Its seed has a deep morphophysiological dormancy: the embryo is undeveloped at dispersal and needs a warm period to grow, followed by cold to break the shoot dormancy, so germination takes two seasons and flowering can take five or six years from seed. That slow cycle, combined with habitat loss, has made cultivation and wild-harvest regulation urgent.

Uses & Benefits

The bulb is the medicinal part, used in Chinese practice for dry cough and for bronchitis, usually in combination with other herbs. It is not a kitchen plant, and the raw bulb should not be eaten, since the alkaloids are active and the dose matters.

In the garden it is a collector’s plant for an alpine bed or a raised trough, where its tendrilled leaves and nodding bells are a quiet reward in early summer. It needs sharp drainage, a cool root run and a site that stays snow-covered or at least cold in winter. The bulbs are graded by size in the market, and the smallest are often sold whole rather than sliced.

Growing from Seed

Sow fresh seed as soon as it is ripe, on the surface of a gritty, humus-rich mix, and keep the pot outdoors so that it experiences a warm summer followed by winter cold. Germination usually appears in the second spring, and the young bulb will pull itself down into the compost and may not show a leaf for another year.

Grow the seedlings in deep pots in a cold frame, repotting only when the bulbs are dormant. Plant out into a raised bed with sharp drainage and light shade, and keep the bulbs dry in summer. Expect flowering in five or six years, and never lift the bulbs while they are in growth.

Our Take

A slow, beautiful alpine fritillary and a medicinal bulb under pressure in the wild. It is a plant for patient growers with a cold frame, not for the impatient.

Herb Seeds