Description
This makes brown bulbs, around 2.5-3cm in diameter which are clothed in tunics lined with long silky hairs internally. The foliage consists of 3-5 very glaucous, undulate leaves which are faintly patterned with brownish or purplish, discontinuous lines and lines of dots.
Above sits a 25-35cm tall stem which holds flowers up to 10cm long. These are stunning being an intense and glowing, deep, rich red-crimson, inside and out, though inside, the base is marked with a tear-drop shaped, black zone, itself varyingly edged in golden yellow, though white-edged and un-edged forms are know.
The wild range of this red-flowered species stretches from the Kopet Dag in Iran as far as Pamir and Tien Shan of central Asia. In altitude this goes to around 3,000m usually in rocky habitats at the edge of melting snow.
Not difficult in a very sunny, raised bed or bulb frame, or a pot under glass. Regardless, it should be in a loam-based, well drained, fertile compost and it does require a dry summer rest to ripen the bulbs. It is a stunning plant, which has, to my mind, only one real “fault” in that it is very reluctant to make offsets so that reliable increase is only by seed.
Cultivated stock from seed traceable originally to the Kopet Dagh of Iran.
