Puschkinia

Puschkinia is a dwarf bulbous genus consisting of just two species native to the Caucasus, Turkey, northern Iran and Lebanon. Puschkinia grow from a small bulb with a pair of erect basal leaves.

The commonest species is the cheap, cheerful and widespread Puschkinia scilloides, which is very adaptable and which will grow in almost any situation, in the garden. It makes 15 cm stems with racemes of star-shaped, pale turquoise-blue flowers very early in the spring, each tepal marked with a darker blue central stripe.

The rarer of the two species is the recently described, green-flowered peshmennii and this is now known in a rare, white form.

Puschkinia are distantly related to both Scilla and Chionodoxa and like members of the genus Chionodoxa, the bases of the stamens are flattened and closely clustered in the middle of the flower partially fused to make a vestigial “cup” almost like a primitive Narcissus. (In the related genus Scilla, the stamens are not flattened or clustered together).

This genus is named in honour of the Russian botanist Count Apollo Mussin-Pushkin. It was once included in the Liliaceae but new classifications now see it regarded as a member of the Asparagaceae in the subfamily Scilloideae.

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