Foetid robust herbs. Bulb 4-5 (-8) x 4-5-(8) cm; bulbils or stolons absent, scales with scarious margins, inner fleshy, outer coriaceous. Stem 40-100 x 1-2.5 cm. Leaves in 3-4 whorls, 4-8 in each whorl, sessile, 7-18 x (1.5) 5-10 cm. Bracts 6-12 x 0.5-1.5 cm in groups of (5) 10-12 (-20). Peduncle 13-18 cm long. Flowers (1)-3-5 in umbel, cupular or broadly campanulate, orange, red. Pedicel 2.5-5.0 cm, nodding in flowers. Tepals 4-5.5 (-7) x 1.5-3.0 cm, oblanceolate, obovate. Nectaries white, ± circular, 4-5-(8) mm in diameter. Filaments 2.5-5 cm, glabrous, anthers 7-12 mm, attached to filament c. 1.0 mm from the base. Ovary stipitate, 6-11 x 1-4 mm, style (1.5)-3-4.5 cm, trisulcate, exserted, stigma 2-5 mm broad, tripartite, papillose towards apex. Capsule stalk (elongated pedicel) 6-11 cm long, stipe 0.5-1.5 cm; capsule 3-5 x 2-5 cm, oblong, wings c. 2 mm broad. Seeds 5-9 x 3-4 mm, dark brown, oblong, fleshy, winged.
Fl.Per.: April-June
Type: Described from cultivated material. In Persia? Constantinopoli venit in Europam c. 1570, Herb. Linn 421/1 (LINN) (Rix in P. H.Davis, Fl. Turk. 8: 286. 1984).
Distribution: Turkey (Anatolia), N. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir.
2n = 24 (Koul, A. K. & Wafai, B. A. in Cytologia 45: 675-682. 1980.)
Beautiful ornamental plant.
Fresh bulbs poisonous but edible after cooking (Ambasta et al., Useful Plants of India: 228. 1986). They contain steroidal alkaloids; used as analgesic, expectorant and in treatment of fever and tumours (Ben-Erik van Wyk, Medicinal Plants of the World: 410. 2004).
