Muscari
Muscari is a genus of perennial bulbous plants native to Eurasia that produce spikes of dense, most commonly blue, urn-shaped flowers resembling bunches of grapes in the spring. The common name for the genus is grape hyacinth, but they should not be confused with hyacinths. A number of species of Muscari are used as ornamental garden plants.
Description
says that many species of grape hyacinths are difficult to distinguish. They usually have one or more narrow leaves which arise from a bulb. The flowers appear in the spring and form a spike or raceme, being held in a close or loose spiral around a central stalk. The flowers often become less tightly spaced as the flower matures. The flower colour varies from pale blue to a very dark blue, almost black in some cases. In some species, the upper flowers may be of a colour or shape different from the lower flowers. Individual flowers are composed of six fused tepals forming a spherical to obovoid shape, constricted at the end to form a mouth around which the ends of the tepals show as small lobes or "teeth", which may be of a color different from the rest of the tepal.Taxonomy
The use of muscari as part of the name of at least some of the species included in the modern genus can be traced back to Carolus Clusius in 1601, long before the modern rules of botanical nomenclature were established. In 1753, Carl Linnaeus used the name Hyacinthus muscari for the plant now called Muscari racemosum. In 1754 Philip Miller formally established the genus Muscari according to modern rules of nomenclature. The name muscari comes from the Greek muschos, musk, referring to the scent. Miller did not designate a type species, although the etymology of the genus name points to the species Linnaeus called Hyacinthus muscari. Britton & Brown, Garbari & Greuter, Speta, and Böhnert et al. accept Muscari botryoides as the type species.Classified in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, the genus was formerly placed in the Liliaceae as a member of the tribe Hyacintheae. The genus was at one time divided into four groups or subgenera: Botryanthus, Pseudomuscari, Leopoldia, and Muscarimia. Some authorities recognize Leopoldia and Pseudomuscari as separate genera., Plants of the World Online continued to recognize Muscarimia as a separate genus, with two species – Muscarimia macrocarpa and M. muscari.
Subgenera
In 2023, Böhnert et al. published the results of a phylogenetic analysis of Muscari and its segregate genera. They found Muscari a "very natural group", with five distinct clades, which they recognize as subgenera:- M. subg. Leopoldia Peterm., syn. Leopoldia Parl.
- M. subg. Muscari
- M. subg. Muscarimia Böhnert, syn. Muscarimia Kostel. ex. Losinsk.
- M. subg. Pseudomuscari D.C.Stuart, syn. Pseudomuscari Losinsk.
- M. subg. Pulchella Böhnert – a new grouping
Species
, Plants of the World Online accepted 85 species, including species that have been placed in Leopoldia and Pseudomuscari, genera which are treated as synonyms, but excluding Muscarimia. Subgenus placements in the table are from Böhnert et al..| Species | Subgenus |
| Muscari adilii M.B.Güner & H.Duman | Muscari |
| Muscari albiflorum Hosni | Leopoldia |
| Muscari alpanicum Schchian | unplaced |
| Muscari anatolicum Cowley & Özhatay | Muscari |
| Muscari armeniacum H.J.Veitch | Muscari |
| Muscari artvinense Demirci & E.Kaya | Muscari |
| Muscari atillae Yıldırım | Muscari |
| Muscari atlanticum Boiss. & Reut. | Muscari |
| Muscari aucheri Baker | Muscari |
| Muscari azureum Fenzl | Pseudomuscari |
| Muscari babachii Eker & Koyuncu | Leopoldia |
| Muscari baeticum Blanca, Ruíz Rejón & Suár.-Sant. | Muscari |
| Muscari bicolor Boiss. | Leopoldia |
| Muscari botryoides Mill. | Muscari |
| Muscari bourgaei Baker | Pulchella |
| Muscari caucasicum Baker | Leopoldia |
| Muscari cazorlanum C.Soriano, Rivas Ponce, R.Lozano & Ruíz Rejón | Muscari |
| Muscari coeleste Fomin | Pseudomuscari |
| Muscari coeruleum Losinsk. | Muscari |
| Muscari commutatum Guss. | Muscari |
| Muscari comosum Mill. | Leopoldia |
| Muscari cycladicum P.H.Davis & D.C.Stuart | Leopoldia |
| Muscari discolor Boiss. & Hausskn. | Muscari |
| Muscari dolichanthum Woronow & Tron | unplaced |
| Muscari eburneum D.C.Stuart | Leopoldia |
| Muscari elmasii Yıldırım | Leopoldia |
| Muscari erdalii Özhatay & Demirci | Leopoldia |
| Muscari erzincanicum Eker | Leopoldia |
| Muscari fatmacereniae Eker | Muscari |
| Muscari fertile Ravenna | Muscari |
| Muscari filiforme Ravenna | Muscari |
| Muscari forniculatum Fomin | Pseudomuscari |
| Muscari ghouschtchiense Böhnert | Leopoldia |
| Muscari grandifolium Baker | unplaced |
| Muscari gussonei Nyman | Leopoldia |
| Muscari haradjianii Briq. ex Rech.f. | Leopoldia |
| Muscari heldreichii Boiss. | Muscari |
| Muscari hermonense Ravenna | Muscari |
| Muscari hierosolymitanum Ravenna | Pulchella |
| Muscari inconstrictum Rech.f. | Pseudomuscari |
| Muscari inundatum Yıldırım & Eker | Muscari |
| Muscari kerkis Karlén | Pulchella |
| Muscari kurdicum Maroofi | Pseudomuscari |
| Muscari latifolium J.Kirk | Pulchella |
| Muscari lazulinum Ravenna | Muscari |
| Muscari longipes Boiss. | Leopoldia |
| Muscari longistylum Hosni | Leopoldia |
| Muscari macbeathianum Kit Tan | Muscari |
| Muscari maritimum Desf. | Leopoldia |
| Muscari massayanum C.Grunert | Leopoldia |
| Muscari matritense Ruíz Rejón, Pascual, C.Ruíz Rejón, Valdés & J.L.Oliv. | Leopoldia |
| Muscari microstomum P.H.Davis & D.C.Stuart | Pulchella |
| Muscari mirum Speta | Leopoldia |
| Muscari muglaense Eker, H.Duman & Yıldırım | Leopoldia |
| Muscari nazimiyense Yıld. & Kılıç | unplaced |
| Muscari neglectum Guss. ex Ten. & Sangiov. | Muscari |
| Muscari neumannii Böhnert | Leopoldia |
| Muscari olivetorum Blanca, Ruíz Rejón & Suár.-Sant. | Muscari |
| Muscari pallens Fisch. | Muscari |
| Muscari pamiryigidii Eker | Muscari |
| Muscari parviflorum Desf. | Pseudomuscari |
| Muscari pseudomuscari Wendelbo | Pseudomuscari |
| Muscari pseudopallens Eker, Yıldırım & Armağan | unplaced |
| Muscari pulchellum Heldr. & Sartori ex Boiss. | Pulchella |
| Muscari sabihapinariae Eroglu, Pinar & Fidan | Muscari |
| Muscari salah-eidii Hosni | Leopoldia |
| Muscari sandrasicum Karlén | Muscari |
| Muscari savranii Uysal & Dogu | Leopoldia |
| Muscari serpentinicum Yıldırım, Altioglu & Pirhan | Muscari |
| Muscari sintenisii Freyn | unplaced |
| Muscari sivrihisardaghlarense Yıld. & B.Selvi | Muscari |
| Muscari spreitzenhoferi Vierh. | Leopoldia |
| Muscari stenanthum Freyn | Muscari |
| Muscari tabrizianum Böhnert | Leopoldia |
| Muscari tauricum Demirci, Özhatay & E.Kaya | Muscari |
| Muscari tavoricum Ravenna | Pseudomuscari |
| Muscari tenuiflorum Tausch | Leopoldia |
| Muscari tijtijense Böhnert | Leopoldia |
| Muscari turcicum Uysal, Ertugrul & Dural | Pulchella |
| Muscari tuzgoluense Yıld. | Muscari |
| Muscari vanense Uysal | unplaced |
| Muscari vuralii Bagci & Dogu | Muscari |
| Muscari wallii Rech.f. | Leopoldia |
| Muscari weissii Freyn | Leopoldia |
| Muscari zagricum Eker, Alipour & Majidi | unplaced |
Böhnert et al. placed two species in Muscari subg. Muscarimia that as of 2025 Plants of the World Online placed in the genus Muscarimia:
- Muscari macrocarpum Sweet = Muscarimia macrocarpa
- Muscari racemosum Mill. = Muscarimia muscari