Lilium Martagon Var. Cattaniae

Lilium martagon var. cattaniae is a powerful Balkan form of the Turk's-cap lily, distinguished by stout stems and numerous unspotted flowers in dark wine red to almost black-purple. Woolly white buds open into strongly recurved blooms with red anthers and pollen, creating a sombre, dramatic candelabra above broad whorls of leaves. Native to the limestone karst mountains of the western Balkans, it can carry dozens of flowers on a mature stem. Long lived but slow to establish, it is a magnificent woodland-edge lily for humus-rich, well-drained soil.