Ixiolirion tataricum (Pall.) Schult. & Schult. fil.

Common in wheat and grain fields in the lower northern parts of the country. Worth cultivating for its attractive flowers.

Bulbs globose, c. 2 cm in diameter, covered with brownish scales. Plants up to 1 m tall. Leaves c. 5 mm broad. Flowers in 2-6 umbellate clusters, bracteate. Bracts up to 1 cm long with broad membranous margins. Pedicels 1-2 cm long. Tepals free, 2-3 5 cm long, blue-violet, linear to lanceolate, 3-veined, long acuminate. Stamens free, unequal in length, filaments purple, free to the base; anthers slightly sagittate, c. 1 mm long. Style filiform, purple, stigmas 3, purple. Fruit capsular, oblong to clavate; seeds many.

Corms ovoid, 1.5--2.5 × 2(--2.5) cm; tunic brown, longitudinally striate. Basal leaves usually 3--8, linear. Flowering stem 10--40 cm, base with 1--3 smaller leaves; bracts smaller than involucres, membranous. Inflorescence an umbel or short raceme, 3--6-flowered, sometimes basal leaf axil of flowering stem with 1--3 additional flowers; involucres 2 or 3, white or green, lanceolate, to 3.5 cm, membranous, apex acuminate and aristate. Pedicels unequal. Perianth azure to dark violet or light blue; segments spreading, free, sometimes laxly connivent proximally into a ca. 1 cm long pseudotube, oblanceolate to narrowly so, 2--3.5 cm × 1--7 mm, veins 3--5 at middle, apex subacute. Stamens unequal, outer ones longer than inner; filament purple, subfiliform, glabrous; anther basifixed, straight. Fl. Apr--Jun.

Distribution: Egypt, Turkey to Central Asia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Fl. Per.: March-April.

Valleys, stony slopes, sandy places, waste grasslands. N Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Turkmenistan].

Ixiolirion tataricum in south Hebron, Palestine

Ixiolirion tataricum, commonly known as the Siberian lily or the lavender mountain lily, is native to central and southwest Asia from the Sinai Peninsula to Xinjiang Province of China. Flower color ranges from light blue to dark violet.