The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Scilla peruviana
Also called Cuban Lily, Portugese Squill, Hyacinth Of Peru
Scilla peruviana is a bulb-forming perennial grown for its dense spikes of blue, white or violet star-shaped flowers in spring. It needs a warm, sunny spot with good drainage and protection from prolonged frost.
Scilla peruviana (synonyms including Oncostema peruvianum), the Cuban lily, Peruvian hyacinth or Portuguese squill, is a species of Scilla native to the western Mediterranean region in Iberia, Italy, and northwest Africa. It is a bulb-bearing herbaceous perennial plant. The bulb is 6–8 cm in diameter, white with a covering of brown scales. The leaves are linear, 20–60 cm long and 1–4 cm broad, with 5-15 leaves produced each spring. The flowering stem is 15–40 cm tall, bearing a dense pyramidal raceme of 40-100 flowers; each flower is blue, 1–2 cm in diameter, with six tepals. The foliage dies down in summer, re-appearing in the autumn.
It is commonly grown as an ornamental plant for its spring flowers; several cultivars are available ranging in colour from white to light or dark blue, or violet. In some areas it is also known as hyacinth-of-Peru, Cuban-lily, or Peruvian scilla.
It is not entirely hardy, suffering from prolonged frost. The best environment is a warm mediterranean climate similar to its native habitat.
Scilla sect. Chionodoxa · Star Hyacinth · Alpine squill · Turkish Squill · Forbes' glory-of-the-snow · Pyrenean Squill · Amethyst Meadow Squill · Boissier's Glory Of The Snow · Mishchenko Squill · Dwarf Glory Of The Snow · Lesser Glory Of The Snow · Siberian squill
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Scilla peruviana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
