Description
(syn. Leopoldia massyanum)
Muscari massayanum is unique in having a dense crown of pink-tinged, pedicellate, sterile flowers, though it is not invariably the “pink Muscari” some books suggest. The lower, fertile flowers are greenish-yellow and under the right conditions of floral age, warmth and still air are beautifully fragrant, suggesting kinship with the similarly fragrant M. macrocarpum and muscarimi.
The unusual fruits are notably large, 15-22 mm capsules held on very short pedicels. The capsules are shed before the seed disperses from them.
The smallish bulbs like a hot, dry summer rest to induce flowering. Grows happily in a sunny, well-drained loam.
Compared to our other stock this variant, originally from high mountains near Erzincan, is more widespread in NE Turkey. It makes just two, wide, flat, highly purplish-suffused leaves, laying flat on the ground. The raceme is dense with very strongly fragrant, green-yellow, black-tipped, fertile flowers towards the base and violet-blue to pink-infused sterile flowers at the top of the spike.
