grape hyacinth

grape hyacinth (plural grape hyacinths)

1. Any of the species of three genera in the Hyacinthinae subtribe (family Asparagaceae) that produce racemes of small blue flowers, Muscari, Pseudomuscari, and Leopoldia.
   • 1856, John Ruskin, chapter XX, in Modern Painters […], volume IV, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, part V (Of Mountain Beauty), § 5, page 356:

     […] while the wood hyacinth, or grape hyacinth, at its best, cannot match even the dark bell-gentian, […]

   • 1947 [1939], Ernst Jünger, translated by Stuart Hood, On the Marble Cliffs, New Directions, translation of Auf den Marmorklippen (in German), →LCCN, →OCLC, page 12:

     Thus in the early year the blue pearl clusters of the grape hyacinth bloomed, and in autumn the gean rejoiced us with the red Chinese lantern gleam of their fruit.