Species
+

Muscari botryoides (L.) Mill.

Common grape hyacinth, Compact Grape-hyacinth, Italian grape-hyacinth, Mała kitelnička

Climate known 57 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Muscari botryoides is a bulbous perennial plant of the genus Muscari and one of a number of species in the genus sold as grape hyacinth. It is sometimes grown as an ornamental plant.

Text from Wikipedia, “Muscari botryoides”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Muscari

Muscari is a genus of perennial bulbous plants native to Eurasia that produce spikes of dense, most commonly blue, urn-shaped flowers resembling bunches of grapes in the spring. The common name for the genus is grape hyacinth, but they should not be confused with hyacinths. A number of species of Muscari are used as ornamental garden plants.

Text from Wikipedia, “Muscari”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
(L.) Mill.
Native to
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany +14
Wild records
837 in range· 578 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
850mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 78 mm (CHELSA)
Light
6–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to January and May to August in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 850 mm a year, wettest December at 78 mm, driest February at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -12.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Botryanthus alpestris Jord. & Fourr.; Botryanthus boraeanus Jord. & Fourr.; Botryanthus candidus Jord. & Fourr.; Botryanthus compactus Jord. & Fourr.; Botryanthus conicus Jord. & Fourr. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to January and May to August in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (601 mm of 850 mm) takes 8 months, October to January and May to August. Mean temperature moves 17.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to February and April to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 850 mm a year, wettest December at 78 mm, driest February at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

850 mm a year at the habitat, 601 mm of it October to January and May to August. Wettest month December at 78 mm, driest February at 56 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 662 mm to 1356 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -12.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -12.3 °C, the absolute minimum -29.2 °C, about 90 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -5.3 °C to 1.6 °C), warmest day 22.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -12.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 4 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul; mean night from -2 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 850 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 723 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -29.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost32.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-29.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 6–35RH 59–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 723 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C4 / 2–85 / 3–99 / 7–1213 / 11–1618 / 16–2020 / 19–2423 / 21–2723 / 21–2719 / 17–2314 / 12–188 / 6–124 / 3–9
Night °C-2 / -5–2-1 / -5–21 / -1–44 / 2–79 / 7–1112 / 10–1414 / 12–1614 / 12–1611 / 9–147 / 5–113 / -0–6-0 / -4–3
Rain mm70 / 48–10056 / 41–8764 / 49–9559 / 42–11476 / 58–12976 / 58–12776 / 48–12374 / 54–12470 / 54–12777 / 52–15274 / 53–13978 / 57–128
DLI7 / 5–1112 / 9–1720 / 16–2529 / 26–3233 / 32–3835 / 33–4235 / 32–4330 / 27–3722 / 18–2814 / 11–188 / 5–126 / 3–9
RH %66 / 61–6964 / 59–6661 / 59–6359 / 58–6159 / 58–6159 / 57–6159 / 56–6159 / 57–6162 / 58–6364 / 62–6667 / 62–6967 / 62–70

Each figure is the median across the 723 grid cells holding the 829 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 757:3832 (52.125, 11.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -29.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -12.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 723 distinct grid cells holding the 829 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 757:3832 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 52.00_11.875, lapse-corrected -23 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 54 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Ukraine· introduced: Great Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, Baltic States, Central European Russia, British Columbia, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, California, Utah, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker48.26, 10.082 · in the densest population, 625 records (75% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 837 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 578 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 104 km away. 1059 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 8 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 837 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Muscari botryoidesMuscari botryoidesMuscari botryoidesMuscari botryoidesMuscari botryoidesMuscari botryoidesMuscari botryoidesMuscari botryoides

Photographs: (c) Katerina Kalogerini, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Violet T., some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Dimitra Vasileiadou, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Muscari botryoides, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Glycosides from Muscari armeniacum and Muscari botryoides. Isolation and structure of Muscarosides G–N
Matteo Adinolfí, Gaspare Barone, Maria Michela Corsaro, Lorenzo Mangoni (1988) · Canadian Journal of Chemistry
Muscari botryoides (L.) Mill.: A New Record for the Family Asparagaceae from Turkey
Süleyman Mesut Pınar, M. Said Fidan, Hüseyin Eroğlu (2018) · Türkiye Tarımsal Araştırmalar Dergisi
Taxonomic studies of theMuscari botryoides complex in Hungary
Lajos Somlyay, István Pintér, Péter Csontos (2006) · Folia Geobotanica
Adatok a Duna–Tisza köze flórájának ismeretéhez
Kristóf Süveges (2023) · Botanikai Közlemények
Distribution of Muscari botryoides (Asparagaceae) in Ukraine
Svitlana Boychuk (2019) · Biolohichni systemy
CONTROL OF MORPHOGENESIS IN THIN CELL LAYER EXPLANTS OF MUSCARI BOTRYOIDES MILL.
K. Kromer, K. Kukułczanka (1992) · Acta Horticulturae
Water Traps Capture the Pigmy Shrew (Microsorex hoyi) in Abundance
Leslie A. Prince (1941) · The Canadian Field-Naturalist
Grape hyacinth [Muscari botryoides (L.) Mill] control in a wheat-soybean rotation
Shawn C. Beam, Mark J. VanGessel, Kurt M. Vollmer, Michael L. Flessner (2019) · Weed Technology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Muscari 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 138 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.