CROWN IMPERIAL

19th April 2024

Photo Credit: aquatarkus (Getty Images), CANVA

QUOTATION

Now my fair’st friend

I would I had some flowers o’ th’ spring that might

Become your time of day, and yours, and yours

that wear upon your virgin branches yet

Your maidenheads growing

…

bold oxlips, the crown imperial; lilies of all kinds,

the flower-de-luce being one - O, these I lack

to make your garlands of, and my sweet friend,

To strew him o’er and o’er.

PERDITA: A Winter’s Tale, Act 4, Scene 4

CROWN IMPERIAL (Fritillaria imperialis)

Perdita lists the Crown Imperial as one of the high status spring flowers she would like to make garlands from. John Gerard (1597) tells us that ‘this plant likewise hath been brought from Constantinople amongst other bulbous roots, and made denizons in our London gardens, whereof I have great plenty’.

Crown Imperial is closely related to the Snake’s Head Fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris), another plant included in Shakespeare’s repertoire of wild and garden spring flowers. Crown Imperial is native to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Western Himalaya but is grown widely as a garden plant.

More Information

Folger Shakespeare: Search Shakespeare’s Works

Kew Plants of the World Online: Fritillaria imperialis