Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 16, 2026

Fessia

Fessia is a genus of bulbous flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. It is distributed from Iran to Central Asia and Pakistan.

Last revised
Jun 16, 2026
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Fessia
Fessia puschkinioides in cultivation at the Berne Botanical Gardens
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Embryophytes
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Spermatophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asparagaceae
Subfamily: Scilloideae
Genus: Fessia
Speta1

Fessia is a genus of bulbous flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae (also treated as the family Hyacinthaceae).2 It is distributed from Iran to Central Asia and Pakistan.1

Description

Species of Fessia grow from bulbs, which are covered by a gray or black tunic, purple inside. Each bulb produces one or more flower stems (scapes) bearing whitish to blue or violet flowers. The stamens have pale blue anthers. The black seeds are globe or drop shaped.3

A number of species of Fessia, often under their earlier names in the genus Scilla, are grown by gardeners specializing in ornamental bulbous plants; they are hardy but some need a dry period in summer. F. puschkinioides (syn. Scilla puchkinioides) is described as "an easy to grow hardy species".4

Systematics

The genus Fessia was created by Franz Speta in 1998. All the species were previously included in a more broadly defined genus Scilla.5 The genus is placed in the tribe Hyacintheae (or the subfamily Hyacinthoideae by those who use the family Hyacinthaceae).6

Species

As of March 2013, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families recognized 11 species:5

  • Fessia bisotunensis (Speta) Speta
  • Fessia furseorum (Meikle) Speta
  • Fessia gorganica (Speta) Speta
  • Fessia greilhuberi (Speta) Speta
  • Fessia hohenackeri (Fisch. & C.A.Mey.) Speta
  • Fessia khorassanica (Meikle) Speta
  • Fessia parwanica (Speta) Speta
  • Fessia purpurea (Griff.) Speta
  • Fessia puschkinioides (Regel) Speta
  • Fessia raewskiana (Regel) Speta
  • Fessia vvedenskyi (Pazij) Speta
References

References

  1. "Fessia", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 2013-04-02
  2. Stevens, P.F. (2001 onwards), "Asparagales: Scilloideae", Angiosperm Phylogeny Website, retrieved 2013-04-02
  3. "Fessia Speta", eMonocot, retrieved 2013-04-02{{citation}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  4. Mathew, Brian (1987), The Smaller Bulbs, London: B.T. Batsford, ISBN 978-0-7134-4922-8, pp. 152–153, 156
  5. Search for "Fessia", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 2013-04-02
  6. Pfosser, Martin; Speta, Franz (1999). "Phylogenetics of Hyacinthaceae based on plastid DNA sequences" (PDF). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 86 (4): 852–875. doi:10.2307/2666172. JSTOR 2666172.