''Prospero autumnale'', the autumn squill, an autumnal flowering plant of the family

Asparagaceae Asparagaceae, known as the asparagus family, is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. The family name is based on the edible garden asparagus, ''Asparagus officinalis''. Those who live in the temperate c ...

, subfamily

Scilloideae Scilloideae (named after the genus ''Scilla'', "squill") is a subfamily of bulbous plants within the family ''Asparagaceae''. Scilloideae is sometimes treated as a separate family Hyacinthaceae, named after the genus ''Hyacinthus''. Scilloideae or ...

, is found in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

region from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

east to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

, plus

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> Despite being classified as a single species, it is actually a

cryptic species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

, with a variety of cytotypes having been discovered which are

phenotypically In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...

indistinguishable from each other. __TOC__

Synonyms

*''Scilla autumnalis'' L. *''Anthericum autumnale'' (L.) Scop. *''Ornithogalum autumnale'' (L.) Lam. *''Genlisa autumnalis'' (L.) Raf. *''Stellaris autumnalis'' (L.) Bubani *''Hyacinthus autumnalis'' (L.) E.H.L.Krause in J.Sturm *''Urginea autumnalis'' (L.) El-Gadi *''Scilla pulchella'' Munby *''Scilla gallica'' Tod. *''Scilla racemosa'' Balansa ex Baker *''Scilla dumetorum'' Balansa ex Baker *''Scilla longipes'' Batt. in J.A.Battandier & L.C.Trabut *''Scilla holzmannia'' Heldr. *''Scilla scythica'' Kleopow *''Prospero holzmannium'' (Heldr.) Speta *''Prospero pulchellum'' (Munby) Speta *''Prospero scythicum'' (Kleopow) Speta *''Scilla cyrenaica'' (Pamp.) G.M.Barroso & al. *''Prospero cyrenaicum'' (Pamp.) Speta Prospero autumnale MHNT

References

Scilloideae Flora of Europe Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Asparagaceae-stub