Small grape hyacinth (Muscari botryoides) is a protected plant. It opens in large numbers in forest edges and lawns.
It is onion plant in size 7-30 cm. It blooms between the end of March and the end of May.
Habitat: mountain and fresh meadows, dry oaks, bog forests, forest edges and clearings, steppe grassy slopes, sand steppe plants.
Older literature from Hungary indicate 3 subspecies. According to recent, not yet completed studies, the first subspecies shows a large morphological overlap with the second, the third probably does not live in Hungary.
It can be confused with the common grape hyacinth (Muscari neglectum), but its flowers are dark purple-blue oblong-ovate, (3.5–7.5 mm long), the leaves are fibrous, 1.5–6 mm wide, drooping; their ends are often fragmented, dry.
(more information: http://www.termeszetvedelem.hu/index.php?pg=vf_424)
Photo: Judit Hartdégen and Arnold Erdélyi, April 2019
