Snake's Head (Fritillaria meleagris) seeds

Snake's Head owes its name to the unusual flower pattern. In some parts of its natural habitats in Europe and Asia, the plant has become very rare. In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, it grows wildly and is also strongly endangered as its preferred habitat - sunny wet meadows and flooded areas - disappears increasingly or becomes unsuitable by overfertilization. It prospers on a variety of soils on which other plants surrender - it tolerates sour soil and is well suitable as an accompanying plant for rhododendron in the moor bed but can also be used for pond edge planting as waterlogging can't harm it. It's an early flowering plant and already shows its eponymous chessboard-patterned blossoms from April but only blooms for a very short period.

Typically, snake's head is bred by the bulbs that it forms for hibernation, and out of which it sprouts again in spring - cultivation from seeds is, however, also possible without any problems. The bulbs are, by the way, very poisonous for humans and contain alkaloids that influence cardiac activity negatively.