Alpine squill, Scilla

Scilla bifolia L.

Recognise!

The alpine squill, with its blue, star shaped flowers and the two green, grass like leaves can not be mistaken. Where it occurs, you will often see many plants together. You can find it in broadleaved forests on humid, calcareous ground, for instance around the city of Luxembourg. It flowers very early, already in March.

Did you know?

The seeds of the alpine squill are distributed by ants. Only a few weeks after the flower appears, nothing is left to be seen of this small spring plant, that will spend the rest of the year underground, as a bulb.

Alpine squill, Scilla
Foto: T. Helminger