Flower bulb of the week: the chequered fritillary.

This week’s flower bulb of the week is the chequered fritillary. The fritty what?! The pattern on the chequered fritillary looks a little bit like a speckled bird’s egg. The botanical name is a bit more complicated: Fritillaria meleagris… The fritty what?! This name comes from the Latin word fritillus, which means a cup that […]

This week’s flower bulb of the week is the chequered fritillary.

The fritty what?!

The pattern on the chequered fritillary looks a little bit like a speckled bird’s egg. The botanical name is a bit more complicated: Fritillaria meleagris… The fritty what?! This name comes from the Latin word fritillus, which means a cup that you use to shake dice. This is because of the diamond shapes on the flowers, which look a bit like dice.

Favourite snack

There is one sense in which the chequered fritillary is not so lucky. Mice love to eat these flower bulbs. For mice, they make a delicious snack. To stop the flower bulbs becoming a mouse’s dinner, you can plant them in a ‘plant basket’. That will stop the mice getting to them.