1. Muscari botryoides (L.) Mill. (common
grape-hyacinth)
Pl.
103 e, f; Map 426
Aerial stems 10–30 cm long. Leaves 10–25 cm long, 3–8 mm wide, flat.
Inflorescences densely crowded. Sterile, terminal flowers few, ascending, with
stalks 0.5–5.0 mm long, with blue (rarely white) 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 (rarely white). 2n=18,
36. April–May.
Introduced, uncommon and widely scattered in Missouri (native of Europe, widely
cultivated, and naturalized sporadically in the eastern U.S.). Openings of
mesic bottomland forests, old fields, pastures, roadsides, railroads,
cemeteries, and other disturbed, mesic areas.
Once established, this species can become quite prolific in some of the open,
cutover stream valleys of the Ozarks.