Common Name: Turk's Cap Lily

General Information

Lilium martagon is a herbaceous perennial bulbiferous plant producing a leafy stem 45 - 90cm tall
The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and medicine and for use in cosmetics. It has at times been cultivated as a medicinal plant in Germany and is commonly grown as an annual[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Eurasia - Baltic States to Portugal and Spain, eastwards through Russia to eastern Syria, through Turkey and the Caucasus to Tibet

Habitat

Deciduous woods, scrub and mountain pasture, especially on limestone[]. Forests, thickets, shady slopes; at elevations from 200 - 2,500 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Habit	Bulb
Height	1.20 m
Pollinators	Lepidoptera, Self
Self-fertile	Yes
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

Lilium martagon is a very cold-hardy plant, able to tolerate temperatures down to around -30°c when fully dormant[].
Succeeds in ordinary well-drained garden soil[, ]. Prefers a good leafy soil in sun or semi-shade[]. Prefers its roots to be in the shade[]. Prefers a calcareous soil according to some reports[, , , ], whilst one says that it is probably best in an acid or neutral soil[].
A very ornamental[] and polymorphic plant[]. It takes 7 - 8 years to flower from seed[]. The flowers have an unpleasant odour[]. The flowers are sweetly fragrant, especially at night in order to attract the night hawk-moth for pollination[].
Early to mid autumn is the best time to plant out the bulbs in cool temperate areas, in warmer areas they can be planted out as late as late autumn[].
The plant should be protected against rabbits and slugs in early spring. If the shoot tip is eaten out the bulb will not grow in that year and will lose vigour[].

Edible Uses

Bulb - cooked[, , ]. It is often dried for later use[]. The broadly ovoid bulb is arounf 5mm in diameterRich in starch, it can be used as a vegetable in similar ways to potatoes (Solanum tuberosum). The bulb is made up of many imbricate, fleshy leaf scales, without a tunic[].

Medicinal

The bulb is diuretic, emmenagogue, emollient and expectorant[]. They are used to relieve heart diseases, pain in the cardiac region and angina pectoris[].
Decoctions have diuretic influence and are used in the treatment of hepatitis in Russian medicine,. They are also used for treating abscesses and toothache[].

Other Uses

An extract of the bulbs is used as an ingredient in commercial cosmetic preparations as an emollient and skin conditioner[].

Propagation

Seed - delayed hypogeal germination[]. Best sown as soon as it is ripe in a cold frame, it should germinate in spring[]. Stored seed will require a warm/cold/warm cycle of stratification, each period being about 2 months long[]. Grow on in cool shady conditions. Great care should be taken in pricking out the young seedlings, many people leave them in the seed pot until they die down at the end of their second years growth. This necessitates sowing the seed thinly and using a reasonably fertile sowing medium. The plants will also require regular feeding when in growth. Divide the young bulbs when they are dormant, putting 2 - 3 in each pot, and grow them on for at least another year before planting them out into their permanent positions when the plants are dormant[].
Division with care in the autumn once the leaves have died down. Replant immediately[].
Bulb scales can be removed from the bulbs in early autumn. If they are kept in a warm dark place in a bag of moist peat, they will produce bulblets. These bulblets can be potted up and grown on in the greenhouse until they are large enough to plant out[].