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Scilla luciliae Bossier’s glory-of-the-snow

Scilla luciliae Bossier’s glory-of-the-snow or Lucile’s glory-of-the-snow is a perennial from western Turkey that flowers very early in the spring.

The Swiss botanist Pierre Edmond Boissier (1810-1885) first identified the plant in 1844 and named it after his wife Lucile. It is commonly referred to as Lucile’s glory-of-the-snow or Boissier’s Lucile’s glory-of-the-snow. It is low maintenance. It is a spring ephemeral as it disappears after blooming until the following spring, according to Wikipedia. By 1900, it was advertised as an early spring bulb in a Baltimore, Maryland seed catalogue along with snowdrops and Scilla Siberica. The species Chionodoxa and its cultivars were transferred to the genus Scilla in 2010.

According to Wikipedia, “Scilla luciliae is native to western Turkey. It has a restricted distribution in the Mahmut Mountain in İzmir Province. Almost all species that are very frost-hardy belong to the Hyacinthaceae family and originate in the region of the Mediterranean from Turkey to Asia. Scilla luciliae has naturalized in North America where the name used in concept references was chionodoxa luciliae and the common names were listed as Lucile’s Squill and Scille gloire-des-neiges in French, according to the not-for-profit NatureServe Explorer, North America’s “largest online encyclopedia of biodiversity”.

“A number of frost-hardy plants in the genera Scilla, Chionodoxa, Hyacinthoides, Muscari, Puschkinia, Brimeura, Hyacinthella, Bellevalia, Hyacinthus and Ornithogalum were listed as deserving of the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society.[16] To receive this award, plants must provide decorative excellence; be easily acquired; be hardy, and not require a specialist; they must be pest- and disease-resistant, and not likely to be subject to reversion. In 1993, Chionodoxa luciliae was listed as having its Award of Garden Merit reconfirmed. Plants in the trial were acquired from the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Netherlands. Scilla luciliae had its Award of Garden Merit confirmed again in 2017.”