Hyacinthoides hispanica ‘Excelsior’ produces 13 to 15 hanging, bell-shaped flowers of deep blue in late spring to early summer. This species is native to the moist woodlands of Spain, Portugal, and northwestern Africa, and it thrives under similar conditions in Chicago area gardens. This cultivar was selected in 1906 because of its larger, more intensely blue flowers. Plant taxonomists have tossed this species back and forth between the genera Scilla, Endymion , and Hyacinthoides. Hopefully, recent DNA analysis has settled the debate, because this has become one of those plants with an identity crisis.