| Snake's Head
Fritillary
Fritillaria meleagris, Checkered Daffodil, Frog-cup, Guinea-hen Flower, or Leper Lily.
This is a pretty amazing story!
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I have had the photo collage shown above posted on the front page
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| Some years ago I was told
that a rare flower was blooming not far from my work. Of coarse I took
the car and drove out on my lunch to have a look.
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After only a short
walk from the parking place at Sandemar Shore Meadows, a nature
reserve just west of the village Dalarö in the Stockholm archipelago,
I found the flowers, in abundance and in every direction beside the
path.
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It was difficult to chose
suitable flowers to photograph. I did actually find the even rarer
white ones, a dozen or so. The same evening I think, Margarita and I went out to Sandemar together.
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Judge of my surprise this
evening Tuesday April 29, 2008, when I catch a glimpse of something
strange on our front yard, in the grass under an old Rowanberry Tree
and between a Sugar Top Spruce, American Cedar, Tuia, Rhododendron,
and a recently cut down Shrubby Cinquefoil hedge, not to forget the
Rose Bush that gone wild, and in the middle of all this on an area of
maybe 20 square meters, a tiny little reddish bell.
No, it can't be a... I'm kneeling down putting the glasses on... it
is really a Snake's Head Lilly! I have now fenced it in, protecting it from happy boys and cats and dogs, and Neighbours! :-)
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| The Snake's Head is said to
have been introduced to Sweden from The Netherlands in the mid
seventeenth century by Olof Rudbeck Senior, (or as we say, the elder). He planted them in the Botanical Garden in Uppsala.
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The flower has apparently
spread itself to the low wet meadow along the Fyris Stream south of
the city Uppsala called
Kungsängen (Kings Meadow) which probably also is the reason it was
given the Swedish
name Kungsängslilja. Or, perhaps it spread to Kungsängen when they changed the soil in the Botanical Garden?
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It's said that the flower is
common in the eastern centerpart of Sweden (Svealand), but to my
knowledge it's almost only to be found, in abundance anyway, in
Kungsängen and Sandemar. Correct me if I'm wrong!
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Today
Wednesday afternoon the 30th, it has opened. Isn't it marvellous?
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