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Flora Emslandia - Plants in Emsland (northwestern Germany)

Hyacinthoides, bluebells

Hyacinthoides Fabr.: The species listed in 1753 by Linnaeus under Hyacinthus: H. non-scriptus and H. cernuus, that are no longer distinguished today, were called already Hyacinthoides by Lorenz Heister (1683-1758), an opponent of Linnaeus, in his work Index plantarum rariorum atque officinalium III (1738). The suffix -oides denotes the  resemblance to the hyacinths. Philip Conrad Fabricius took over the generic name in his work Enumeratio Methodica Plantarum (1759). The English name refers to the bell-shaped flowers and to the color.

Originally native to western Europe and North-West Africa, as ornamental plants cultivated worldwide, the bluebells contain only four species. They are herbaceous, perennial, bulbous plants with annual, egg-shaped bulbs. The plants form a few leaves which are basal, parallel-veined, sessile, entire, long and narrow.

The leafless stalk bears a loose raceme with many flowers. The axis of the inflorescence is called flower scape. The pedicels are surrounded by 2 linear-lanceolate bracts. The 6 identically looking tepals are blue, at cultivated varieties they can also be pink or white. At the base the petals are free or shortly fused and form star-shaped or bell-shaped, nodding or erect flowers.

Between the base and the top center of the tepals arise 6 incurvate stamens with thin filaments, whereas the 3 inner ones may be slightly shorter than the outer ones. The superior ovary consists of 3 fused carpels. It bears a stylus with a simple style with a capitate stigma.

After pollination by bees, bumblebees, moths or flies a dry fruit capsule is formed, that opens up with 3 valves and releases 3–30 spherical or broadly ovate, black seeds. Bluebells reproduce vegetative by forming daughter bulbs.

Floral formula:

* [P(3+3) A3+3] G(3) superior or * [P3+3 A3+3] G(3) superior

The Hyacinthoides can be differ from genera such as Hyacinthus or Scilla by the presence of two bracts at the base of the peduncle, in similar genera they are missing or there is only one.

Meaning of the spesies name

• massartiana: named after the Belgian botanist Jean Massart (1865–1925)

Interesting notes

• Hyacinthoides × massartiana, the hybrid bluebell, of which there are several varieties, is the most common feral bluebell. From garden centers it is wrongly sold under the name of Hyacinthoides hispanica or H. non-scripta.

• Before their classification as Hyacinthoides the plants by various authors were listed under different genera such as Scilla, Usteria, Limonanthe, Endymion and other.