Hyacinthus orientalis (Cultivated)

Hyacinthus orientalis L., Sp. Pl. 317 1753.;

Hyacinthus orientalis (common hyacinth, garden hyacinth or Dutch hyacinth), is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant, native to southwestern Asia, southern and central Turkey, northwestern Syria, Lebanon and northern Israel. It was introduced to Europe in the 16th century. It is widely cultivated everywhere in the temperate world for its strongly fragrant flowers which appear exceptionally early in the season, and frequently forced to flower at Christmas time.

It is a bulbous plant, with a 3–7 cm diameter bulb. The leaves are strap-shaped, 15–35 cm long and 1–3 cm broad, with a soft, succulent texture, and produced in a basal whorl. The flowering stem is a raceme, which grows to 20–35 cm (rarely to 45 cm) tall, bearing 2–50 fragrant purple flowers 2–3.5 cm long with a tubular, six-lobed perianth.

The reproduction of the plant in cultivation can be done easily by dividing the newly appeared bulbs from the main plant. In the nature, this method is also used by the Hyacinth but the plant has also specific kind of reproduction by seeds.

The plant is pollinated by different insects such as honey bees. The flowers are very fragrant and attract the insects by rewarding them with nectar.

After flowering the ripening of the seed capsules begins. They are fleshy and spherical structures. When the capsules reach maturity, they get dried and split apart on three parts. Every part has two subdivisions and contains different quantity of seeds. The seeds are black grains with one white elaiosome which size can vary. As it looks since the seeds have such structure, they are dispersed through myrmecochory. Ants find the seeds and take them into their burrows where they use the elaiosome for food. There the seeds can germinate.

(From Wikipedia on 12.4.16)
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Requesting ID of this lily plant – Chicago, Illinois, USA 24052013 : ARK-03 : Attachments (4). 4 posts by 2 authors.
Requesting ID of this lily like plant captured in Chicago, Illinois, USA in May 2013.

These looks like hybrids of Hyacinthus but not in good shape 🙂

Thank you .. for the lead. Googling indicated Hyacinthus orientalis….

could they be Hyacinthus orientalis ?

Thanks for the reply. Based on the lead provided by … of efi, I too narrowed down on this ID.

SK 3437 28 April 2022: 3 very high res. images.

Location: Eden Project, Cornwall, UK

Altitude: 60m.

Date: 03 April 2022
Habit : Cultivated

Hyacinthus orientalis.
A very poor example.. should look much better.
There are many named cultivars..my pics below show a close planted clump of Hyacinthus orientalis Carnegie.