Authors: Raf.
Bulb to 2.5cm across, bulbils not seen. Stem 15-30cm high. Leaves linear, the lowest usually opposite, the upper in a whorl of three. Flowers one to three broadly campanulate, green tessellated and striped with reddish-brown, having a sperm-like scent. Tepals 2.3-3.2cm long, the inner apiculate or rounded, nectary large, ovate, at the angle of the bell. Style 1cm, trifid, the branches 3-6mm Capsule not winged. Sicily, Greece, Crete and North Africa, in open woods and scrub, often on limestone, at up to 1000m. Var. atlantica is the name for the alpine form from the Atlas mountains in Morocco, which differs in its shorter, broader leaves. (F. oranensis was a name applied to a narrow-leaved lowland form of subsp. messanensis from Oran in Algeria). Subsp. gracilis differs in having the upper leaves usually not in a whorl of three, and in its usually dark purplish flower with obscure tessellations. Western and southern Yugoslavia and Albania, in grassy and rocky places and open woods, on limestone, at 250-1800m. [Pl.184]
