Description
(Pseudomuscari coeruleum)
A very little known and scarce species since it was named by Losinsk in 1935. This has superb pale turquoise flowers (in our stock) though the species is variable from a lighter blue to darker colourations and sometimes it even inclines to greenish shades.
For a Muscari this is spectacular and it appears to be almost unknown in cultivation. From a bulb 1.5-2cm in diameter it makes 2-3 leaves, each up to 1cm wide and from 10-15cm long, below 15-20cm stems which bear many-flowered cylindrical spikes made up of individually urn-shaped blossoms of pale, turquoise blue with white, reflexing teeth. Flowering begins in March under glass or in April outside. The inclusion of this species within Pseudomuscari (itself a dubious separation) is disputed by some, in view of the shapes of the flowers, which are pinched at the mouth and thus are not the typical (and critically diagnostic) out-flaring bells of Pseudomuscari .
This does well in very light shade to full sun in a well-drained loam-based compost or soil and it seems to be happy in garden conditions with similar soils. It presents no difficulties with regard to cultivation.
Introduced only recently from alpine meadows in the Adygea district near Krasnodar in the western Caucasus of Russia, by Henrik Zetterlund. Our stock probably stems from this introduction as it was, at the time of acquisition (2014), the only introduction known of.
Introduced to our lists April 2021
