Hyacinth Plant, Description, Systematics, Geographic Distribution

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Hyacinth Plant
Hyacinth plants are a small species of fragrant, bulbous, flowering plants from the family Asparagaceae and the genus Scilloideae. The ordinary garden hyacinth comes from H. orientalis. Most hyacinth plants have narrow, unnotched leaves at the base of the plant and scented flowers which are blue but can be white, pink, or other colors depending on where they are cultivated. Hyacinth flowers are normally clustered. The flowers are supported by leafless stems, plus each flower stalk is supported by a leaf-like structure (small bract) below it. The ordinary hyacinth, known as Hyacinthus Orientalis, whose flowers fully open and resemble young starfishes, should not be mistaken with the ordinary grape Hyacinth flower (Muscari botryoides). The ordinary grape Hyacinth has tight blossoms and its flowers look like bunches of grapes. Hyacinthus Orientalis and Muscari botryoides are bulb plants which bloom during spring.
I. Description
Hyacinth Orientalis, which is the ordinary garden hyacinth, was primarily grown in Anatolia and was brought in the sixteenth century to Europe. A hyacinth bulb produces a dense, close-packed spike of flowers, fifteen to thirty centimeters (six to twelve inches) tall. Hyacinth plants are extremely scented. Hyacinth flowers are bell-shaped and have reflexed petals (Beckett, 1993). The densely-packed, waxy florets come in peach, white, salmon, yellow, orange, lavender, pink, purple, blue, and red shades. The seven to eight hyacinth leaves are glossy green, star-shaped, and fresh. The hyacinth’s bulb is a cream or light purple color and is covered with papery, dry, skin-like coating (Beckett, 1993). The hyacinth plants’ life cycle is the same as most plants in the world. The hyacinth germinates during spring. Its seeds disseminate onto several surfaces.
II. Systematics
The name Hyacinthus was allocated to Joseph Pitton (French botanist) in 1753 (Royal Botanic Gardens, 2016). Hyacinthus is gotten from the Greek word for plant, its flowers having apparently grown up from a youth’s blood, unintentionally killed by god Apollo (Earle 68). Linnaeus widely defined the Hyacinthus genus to include species classified in different genera of species Scilloideae, like the Muscari. Hyacinthus was previously the species type of the split subclass Hyacinthaceae; before that species was set in the lily subclass Liliaceae (Speta 261).
Species
Within the genus Hyacinthus, there are three species.
* Hyacinthus transcaspicus
* Hyacinthus litwinovii
* Hyacinthus orientalis – Ordinary, Garden or Dutch Hyacinth
Some botanists place H. transcaspicus and H. litwinovii in the related species Hyacinthella (Sergei 289), making Hyacinthus a monotypic genus.
III. Geographic Distribution
Hyacinthus originates from to the Eastern Mediterranean, including Iran, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Palestine, and Lebanon region. Hyacinthus is broadly naturalized elsewhere, including Europe (France, Croatia, Netherlands, Montenegro, Albania, Sicily, Cyprus, Sardinia, Macedonia, and Greece), North America (Canada and United States) Central Mexico, Haiti and Cuba and Korea.
IV. Economic Uses
The ...