The six-pointed white flowers are unmistakable, with six yellow-tipped stamens whose flattened “filaments” seem to form a miniature duplicate flower inside the larger one. This is a European import that often makes itself at home in weed patches; this plant was blooming at the edge of the woods in Bird Park, Mount Lebanon.
For a description of the species, see the Ornithogalum umbellatum reference page.
These charming little green bells are usually invisible from human level; you have to get down to plant level and gently lift up the leaves, and there they are.
The leaves seem to provide an ideal lurking place for tiny spiders. The pictures above were taken in the Kane Woods Nature Area in Scott Township; the one below was taken in Fox Chapel.
For a description of the species, see the Polygonatum pubescens reference page. Note that there are two very similar species of Polygonatum in our area, treated by some botanists as indistinguishable; if any botanically inclined readers believe that these plants are P. biflora rather than P. pubescens, corrections are always welcome.
Though they are not recorded as wild in Pennsylvania by the usual botanical authorities, these dainty bells sometimes pop up unexpectedly as volunteers. This small volunteer patch has been at the same place in Beechview for a few years now, so we can regard it as established and spreading.
For a brief description, see the Hyacinthoides non-scripta reference page.
Arching fronds of alternate leaves hide the dainty little bells: you have to lift the stem, or crouch on the ground, to see the flowers, as we see below.
But it is worth the extra effort to reveal the flowers. They are small and green, but beautifully shaped.
These plants were growing abundantly in the Kane Woods Nature Area in Scott Township, where they were photographed May 5.
For the botanical description by Fernald, see the Polygonatum pubescens reference page.
A European native that has made itself quite at home here, Star of Bethlehem can often be found in weedy patches of low grass. Until it blooms, its narrow leaves are hard to distinguish from the grass around them. The six-pointed white flowers are unmistakable, with six yellow-tipped stamens whose flattened “filaments” seem to form a miniature duplicate flower inside the larger one. This plant was blooming in early May in the Allegheny Cemetery, where it is regularly mowed but seems not to care much.
Although most traditional references place the Star of Bethlehem in the lily family Liliaceae, modern botanists separate it into the asparagus family Asparagaceae.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
ORNITHÓGALUM [Tourn.] L. STAR OF BETHLEHEM. Perianth of 6 (white) spreading 3-7-nerved divisions. Filaments 6, flattened-awl-shaped. Style 3-sided; stigma 3-angled. Capsule roundish-angular, with few dark and roundish seeds in each cell, loculicidal. — Scape and linear channeled leaves from a coated bulb. Flowers corymbed, bracted; pedicels not jointed. (A whimsical name from ornis, a bird, and gala, milk.)
O. umbellàtum L. Scape 1-2.5 dm. high; flowers 5-8, on long and spreading pedicels; perianth-divisions green in the middle on the outside. — Escaped from gardens. (Introd. from Eu.)
