Muscari (Pseudomuscari), Stuart

Subgen. Pseudomuscari Stuart ( Pseudomuscari Garbari & W. Greuter ). Roots slender, annual. Fertile flowers shortly to oblong-campanulate, slightly constricted distally (in European species), pale blue, with dark markings; pedicels ascending (in European species). Sterile flowers many or few, sessile to pedicellate. Capsules dehiscent on plant. 13. M.parviflorumDesf.,F/.J//.l:309(1798).

Bulbs occasionally producing offsets; tunics light brown. Leaves 3-5,7-20 cm x 1-3-5 mm, narrowly linear or filiform, rarely narrowly oblanceolate. Scape 15-35 cm, always exceeding leaves. Raceme very lax, cylindrical. Pedicels of fertile flowers 2-4-5 mm, ascending, as long as or shorter than flowers. Fertile flowers 3-5 mm, broadly oblong-obovoid, weakly constricted above, pale blue; teeth paler, with a median darker blue marking, recurved. Sterile flowers few and minute, often absent. Capsule 5-7 x 4-6 mm. Autumn-flowering. 2« =18. Mediterranean region. BI Cr Gr Hs It Ju Si.

Garbari & Greuter refer this anomalous species to the group of species here included in Subgen. Botryanthus , but, despite the constriction of the perianth, its affinities are with species of Subgen. Pseudomuscari in Anatolia, with which it shares the dark blue marking on the teeth.