Prospero idaeum

The subterranean bulb is roughly spherical to broadly egg-shaped and about 2–3 cm across, wrapped in a rust-coloured tunic. In late summer it sends up a tuft of seven to fourteen narrow, grass-like leaves (2–7 mm wide, 11–15 cm long) that emerge before the flowers—a habit termed . Shortly afterwards two or three slender, leafless flower stalks () rise 10–18 cm high, each carrying a loose of seven to fifteen star-shaped, pale pink flowers. Individual measure about 3 mm long; the six petal-like segments () have a slightly deeper , while the lilac-tinged sits above slender, white-based . Following pollination the extend and spherical seed capsules about 3 mm in diameter mature, releasing glossy black seeds. ==Taxonomy==

Prospero idaeum was one of six autumn-flowering squills from Crete that the Austrian botanist Franz Speta segregated from the broad concept of Prospero autumnale when he reassessed the complex at the turn of the century. Morphological study, coupled with cytological evidence, convinced Speta that these Cretan plants warranted recognition in the resurrected genus Prospero—a group distinguished from Scilla sensu stricto by its rust-coloured bulb tunics, (leaf-before-flower) growth, and small, funnel-shaped flowers. In his 2000 paper he formally named P. idaeum, designating a cultivated specimen raised from material collected on the Nida Plateau of Mount Ida (Psiloritis, 1,400 m elevation) as the holotype. The specific epithet honours the mountain massif that shelters the species' only known population. Chromosome counts showed a diploid complement of 2n=14, a number shared with two of its close congeners (P. rhadamanthi and P. depressum) but lower than the counts recorded for the polyploid P. hierapytnense (2n=26) and P. battagliae (2n=28). ==References==