Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden, South Africa

Family: Asparagaceae subfam. Scilloideae

Distribution: Western Mediterranean: Spain, Portugal, Italy & northwest Africa

IUCN Red list: Not evaluated

Life form: Geophyte (bulb, corm or tuber - seasonally dormant)

Comments: Although the species epithet peruviana means "from Peru", this is really a western Mediterranean plant. Linnaeus named the species in 1753 with his now standard binomial system, using an earlier name given to the plant by Carolus Clusius: "Hyacinthus stellatus peruanus". Clusius noted it as growing in an Antwerp garden of Everardus Munichoven, who was thought to have got the plants from Peru. This incorrect information was already noted in 1804 in Curtis's Botanical Magazine.
Being from the Mediterranean winter rainfall growing region, this species does very in our matched Cape climate.