Lilium martagon

This species is easy to recognise due to its characteristic racemic inflorescence formed by numerous hanging flowers with 6 glossy and fleshy tepals that are pale pink-purple with darker spots. These open progressively until they are reflected backwards at the end of flowering. Largely lanceolate and sessile, the leaves are united in characteristic whorls. Mountain people once used its bulbs to prepare compresses against the skin blemishes caused by childhood diseases like chickenpox and measles. It seems to have been a plant sacred to Mars, the god of war and in the 15th and 16th centuries, soldiers were said to carry dried bulbs onto the battlefield as amulets. It is often grown as an ornamental plant.