3. Muscari racemosum (L.) Mill. (blue bottle, grape-hyacinth, musk-hyacinth)

Map 248

Aerial stems 10–30 cm long. Leaves 10–25 cm long, 1–3 mm wide, tubular, hollow, circular in cross-section and grooved longitudinally along the inner side. Sterile, terminal flowers few, ascending, with stalks 0.5–5.0 mm long and blue to purplish blue perianth 2–4 mm long. Fertile flowers with stalks 2–5 mm long at flowering, elongating in fruit, the perianth 4–5 mm long, narrowly urn-shaped to nearly globose, blue to purplish blue. 2n=18=72. April–May.

Introduced, uncommon in eastern Missouri (native of Europe, widely cultivated, and naturalized sporadically in the eastern U.S.). Openings of mesic bottomland forests, old fields, pastures, roadsides, railroads, and other disturbed areas.

This species is apparently a relatively recent escape from cultivation in Missouri. It has been confused with the morphologically similar western Asian species, M. armeniacum Leichtlin ex Baker, in some of the horticultural literature. The latter taxon has flowers with the perianth dark blue to nearly black.