Last fall I planted out these no name bulb which bloom for the first time this year. No idea what it is. I've looked a scilla, hyacinthella, hyacinthoides, fessia and merwilla pictures on the wiki and don't see anything that looks like it. Doesn't smell like an allium. Its starry light blue flowers are rather pretty little things. Whatever it is, it's hardy-we went down to 15 last winter.
Any ideas? Is this a plant to be feared?
Jan
I recently saw a photo of a 'Tractema verna' which looked like your plant, and matches plants in our Cantabrian coast, but it's not like the Tractema verna from central Europe, with quite wide leaves (I can't grow it here, so I have never seen the plant physically).
Note: modern genetic studies, even by different teams, have confirmed the splitting of Scilla, so I will use Scilla only when appropriate. It's not my fault if Kew (who are not God) are not up-to-date. I am a botanist and I must follow what science is telling. Of course Scilla is a valid name (only inaccurate and misleading) and it can be used, I will respect that, but I ask for respect to my position as well.
I also posted the picture on Instagram and was pointed by Rimmer to Hyacinthoides mauritanica ssp vicentina. Or Hyacinthoides vicentina if you prefer. This seems to be the best fit when I look at it closely. It doesn't have the really blue anthers of the Tractema verna. Whatever it is I rather like it and hope to spread it around.
Hmmmmm... Hyacinthoides vicentina grows not far from me on the Cape of St. Vincent, hence its name. This cape is the very south westerly end of Europe. I do not have a picture of the wild plant at hand. Does your picture show the color accurately? The typical form is bright blue and not almost white. And your plant seems to be somewhat too big and too lush but that might depend on the growing conditions. The wild population grows on pure sand. I agree that it is a very nice thing you have there.
Well.... Maybe not as bright blue as I remember.... I checked this website https://flora-on.pt/#1Hyacinthoides+vicentina which is an excellent reference for Portuguese plants. I tried to copy a picture into this reply but it did not work.
Yes, Hyacinthoides is the second obvious choice. Can you look at the bracteoles (presence / absence, one or two, length...)
Carlos
Ignoring for the moment the recent explosive splitting of the genus Scilla, I think Jan (who lives across the city from me) has the same thing that's flowering in my rock garden now. I'm pretty sure, given the botanical description and the history of my bulb collection, that it's Scilla lilio-hyacinthus, with S. verna another possibility. I'll find out more when it goes dormant and can be lifted, as S. lilio-hyacinthus is described as having distinctive scale-like structures on the bulb. Either one could have got into my rock garden as random seedlings when I moved to the present place.
The plant living with me under the name Scilla lilio-hyacinthus looks completely different to the one on Jan's picture. It has large leaves nearly of Colchicum size and does not have flowers in such a kind of umbel.
I do not know Hyacinthoides mauritanica ssp. vicentina. I only have the normal Hyacinthoides mauritanica which behaves as winter grower flowering already in late summer of early autumn – so early that it already had ended flowering when I controlled the area with the winter-grower pots to see which one I should awaken first in early September 2023. As this was my debut flowering of them, I cannot compare it to Jan's plant – however, the leaves of my plants again are broader than those of Jan's plant (but not as broad as S. lilio-hyacinthus).
Hi, Tractema lilio-hyacinthus is very different, as Jan said:
https://www.asturnatura.com/photo/_files/photogallery/7d3e72a4480f93c7ecba2b520fdc7aba.jpg (https://www.asturnatura.com/photo/_files/photogallery/7d3e72a4480f93c7ecba2b520fdc7aba.jpg)
https://d2seqvvyy3b8p2.cloudfront.net/a1a8042ac2319073e1f4107cb42f9fe5.jpg (https://d2seqvvyy3b8p2.cloudfront.net/a1a8042ac2319073e1f4107cb42f9fe5.jpg)