Grape Hyacinth
Muscari sp.
Grape Hyacinth · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · 2 April 2026
One spike picked out sharp against a field of its own kind gone to blur - the lowest flowers, open longest, already showing more purple than the tight buds at the tip. The smell is the surprise. Grape hyacinths have a scent somewhere between musk and plum, strong enough in a mass planting to catch from a few yards off, and the Latin name Muscari is from the same root as musk.
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