Description
(Oncostema)
Oncostema is a new genus created by Professor F. Speta to accommodate a small group[ of plants, formerly lumped into Scilla but now considered so very distinct that they deserve a new genus. This species is apparently endemic to Lampedusa, a small island in the Sicilian Channel. Plants previously grown as S. dimartinoi from Malta are now considered by some to be forms of S. sicula. The exact taxonomic situation of this (and a small group of related Scilla species) is unclear and the species is not even mentioned in the somewhat superficial treatment of Flora Europaea!
Our new stock (2009) is traceable to plants first found on Lampedusa and bears a stemless branched inflorescence of very pale, blue flowers at ground level, in the manner of some S. African genera, such as Massonia. Similarly, the leaves make a rosette, spread flat on the ground and looking like a starfish. S. peruviana is frequently mis-named and passed off as Scilla dimartinoi in horticulture, however these are genuine, propagated, true to name bulbs.
So far only tried here under glass, where it is very easy and tolerant, in a well drained loam soil in sun. It does seem to like shallow planting to ripen the bulbs. In time we will try it outside, where I suspect that it may be hardy.
