Tassel Grape Hyacinth

Description:

Leopoldia comosa (syn. Muscari comosum) is a perennial bulbous plant. Described by Oleg Polunin as "a striking plant", it has a tuft of bright blue to violet-blue sterile flowers above brownish-green fertile flowers, which open from dark blue buds. This tuft gives rise to the name "tassel hyacinth".[3] The flower stem is 20–60 cm tall; individual flowers are borne on long stalks, purple in the case of the sterile upper flowers. Mature fertile flowers are 5–10 mm long with stalks of this length or more and are bell-shaped, opening at the mouth, where there are paler lobes. The linear leaves are 5–15 mm wide, with a central channel.

Habitat:

It is found in rocky ground and cultivated areas, such as cornfields and vineyards, in south-east Europe to Turkey and Iran. Spotted in a meadow at Seih-Sou, the suburban forest of Thessaloniki (Greece).

Notes:

In Greek it is called βολβοί, βροβιούς volví, vrovioús. In Greece and especially on Crete, it is considered a real delicacy and collected in the wild. The cleaned bulbs are boiled several times, pickled. and then kept in olive oil.