Muscari neglectum
Encyclopedia
Muscari neglectum is a perennial bulbous
Bulb
A bulb is a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf bases. The leaves often function as food storage organs during dormancy.A bulb's leaf bases, known as scales, generally do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse conditions. At the center of the bulb is...

 plant, one of a number of species and genera known as Grape Hyacinth and in particular Common Grape Hyacinth. It is sometimes grown as an ornamental plant
Ornamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...

.

Description

M. neglectum is a herbaceous plant growing from a bulb. The flower stems are 5–20 cm tall. The flowers are arranged in a spike or raceme
Raceme
A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

 and are dark blue with white lobes at their tips; there may be a cluster of paler sterile flowers at the top of the spike. The raceme is 2–6 cm long. The fruit is a 3-valved capsula.

It is a very well known species in cultivation (being described as the "common" Grape Hyacinth by Mathew); it increases rapidly and can become too invasive.

Taxonomy

The name was attributed to Giovanni Gussone by Michele Tenore
Michele Tenore
Michele Tenore was an Italian botanist active in Naples, Italy.Tenore studied at the University of Naples, receiving his medical degree in 1800...

 in a list of plants of the Neapolitan area
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 published in 1842. The species has a confused nomenclatural history; no fewer than 46 full species names are listed as synonyms in the Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. The name M. racemosum is commonly found as a synonym for M. neglectum in the horticultural literature, although the true M. racemosum
Muscari racemosum
Muscari racemosum is a perennial bulbous plant, one of a number of species and genera known as Grape Hyacinth. Originally from south-west Turkey where it grows in rocky places, it is sometimes grown as an ornamental plant. It may be found in the horticultural literature under the synonym Muscari...

Mill. is a different species.
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