Field of Science

Friday Fabulous Flower – Squill

The Phactor has a blue lawn. No, it’s not sad and depressed; it’s full of squill (Scilla siberica). It takes decades for the original plants to multiply and spread to make such a continuous carpet of blue, and only a few of the oldestyards in town look this way. Many people mistake glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa) for squill, or vice versa, but the GOTS flowers don’t nod and the stamen filaments are broad (dilated) forming a white center in the blue corolla in common varieties. A blue lawn is such a cheerful spring display, and that’s good because there is no way on Earth to get rid of squill once you have it; they can probably survive a nuclear bomb. A bit later in the season, the foliage is a bit of a problem. If you don’t wait until the leaves die down of their own accord before mowing, they will slime your lawn mower with their copious mucilage. Here's another view of the blue sward.

2 comments:

Eric said...

That's a wonderful display. We have a mix of Puschkinia, Chionodoxa, and Scilla and gradually the Puschkinia are dominating. It's great to watch them work their way further downhill every year. But I think I like the look of yours better. I guess the lawn is always bluer.....

(By the way, the word verification for leaving this comment was "molde"!)

Lisa said...

Oh my goodness, that's spectacular!