Biarum fraasianum (Schott) Nyman

Tuber compressed discoid 4 × 2 cm, with few offsets, pale brown, older tubers with conspicuous, concentric brown rings. Leaves 13–20 cm, hysteranthous, long-petiolate, petioles clasping basally, enclosed by few, c. 3 cm × 2–4 mm linear-triangular to lanceolate pale brownish-cream papery cataphylls; petiole 7–9 cm × c. 2 mm; leaf lamina oblong to oblanceolate, 6–9 × 1.5–4 cm, apex obtuse to sub-acute, base short to long decurrent, c. 6 primary lateral veins per side, margins smooth, lamina mid-green. Inflorescence appearing in spring, smelling strongly of overripe fruit; peduncle c. 4–6 cm × 5–6 mm, swollen apically in fruit to c. 1 cm, clothed, together with the base of the spathe, by several 6–10 × 1.5–2 cm broadly linear cataphylls. Spathe 13–24 cm long; spathe limb ovate-lanceolate to oblong, 10–20 × 4–6 cm, shortly cuspidate, exterior greenish purple, interior dark brownish purple, upper part of spathe tinged green; spathe tube subcylindric, 3–4 × 1.5–2.5 cm, margins fused for ¾ their length, exterior whitish, tinged apically green and purplish brown, interior white above, deep purple below. Spadix approximately half as long as the spathe limb, 7.5–12 cm long; appendix briefly stiptate, fusiform, 4.5–10 cm × 4–7 mm, greenish purple-brown, stipe and base of appendix paler. Staminate flowers in a zone c. 15 × 4 mm, cream, slight stained purple towards the tips. Interstice 16–25 × 2–3 mm, white. Staminodes sparse, arranged mostly directly above the pistillate flowers, but with one or two scattered on the upper portion of the interstice; filaments slender, c. 4 mm long, white. Pistillate flowers in a hemispherical cluster 10–13 × 3–6 mm; ovaries bottle-shaped, c. 1.5 × 0.5 mm wide, green, style c. 0.5 × 0.15 mm, flushed purple, stigma globose, c. 0.25 mm in diam. Infructescense hemispherical, 2.5 × 1 cm, consisting of c. 30 fruits, berries pyrifrom-globose, c. 4 × 4 mm, pale silvery purple, stylar portion purple, stigmatic remains prominent, c. 1 × 0.5 mm; seeds globose, c. 3 mm in diam., pale brown, somewhat reticulate. 2n = 36 (Popova & Ceschmedjiev 1978).

Long thought to be restricted to the type locality, where extensive urban and agricultural development has almost certainly extinguished most populations, B. fraasianum has recently been recollected in the Peloponnese by amateur bulb enthusiast Mike Salmon.