Plant of the day is: Ornithogalum umbellatum or Star-of-Bethlehem
Trying to make more than a few positives out of a month of isolation. The last few years I've certainly fallen into some traps of not being attentive enough in my enthusiasm and interest in learning about plants. I suppose it's always a danger in life to become too complacent and comfortable in where you are and the knowledge you have. It'll be a long, weird haul for me not being able to see my seedlings come up and struggle to keep them alive in the rough conditions of Saint Louis, but I'm going to spend some much needed time reconnecting with one of the true sources of peace I've ever found. Let's talk about some plants. In the past I've been a bit more structured with these write-ups. In the interest of fun, and feeling like "playing around" a little bit, the first section of these will be a bit of fun trivia/lightheartedness and the subsequent sections (as I feel up to it) will be more taxonomic and culture based.
Ornithogalum umbellatum close-up2 photo credit: Meneerke bloem
General stuff: It can be difficult at times to remember that it's not the plant you're annoyed with, but the place. The flowers are actually quite beautiful, especially in mass, which is fairly easy to accomplish. See here for the USDA spread of the species, quite far flung. Alabama considers it a Class C Noxious Weed, I just consider it a bit of a pain. Unfortunately, large populations of these exist around my yard, so large populations pop up every year. I'm hoping I can whittle them down the hard way by hand weeding, but they are tenacious buggers. Usually listed as a naturalizer and not necessarily a noxious weed, as they often struggle to overtake an area of richer biodiversity, often going for empty/waste places.
They are bulbous, and tend to really resist being pulled up without leaving at least a bulb or two behind. It's a well suited adaptation for grazing/human control. I've been working on an a bed almost entirely full of these and for every 20 I get I'm sure I leave a few behind. Thankfully I've got the time this Spring to wrangle them all up. They do have a decent smell to them and will often pop up in your lawn as well. Thankfully, regular mowing at a decent height should keep them from flowering. You do NOT want to let these go to flower, or you'll be in my position, fighting off a hoard of them. Best way to dig em is to try and get your soil knife/trowel UNDER where the bulbs will be at an angle and then heave them out.
Sunny day photo credit: Michael Goodyear
Taxonomy, etc.: It is in the Asparagus family, Asparagaceae, which is a rather large family and at times a bit bonkers in terms of how many a genera are managed and shifted around. Muscari, Nothoscordum, Scilla, Albuca, Nolina, Pseudogaltonia, Triteleia, Lachenalia, Yucca, Massonia, and one of my favorites, Massonia, are all members I've grown in the last few years. I'll likely be doing a write-up on Massonia soon. The species has been depicted by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and there is some folklore behind it suggesting it grew from fragments of the star of Bethlehem. The genus Ornithogalum was adopted by Linnaeus in the 18th century but the name dates back to at least the second century AD. It translates from Greek as "bird's milk", the reasons for why kind of baffle me so I'll let you look into that if you're curious. There are roughly 180 species and I imagine telling some of them apart is a laborious and altogether unpleasant task. They are from Mediterranean areas including Africa and Madagascar and as far east as Afghanistan. Back to the confuscated nature of the family, just for a chuckle, Wiki comments that "this very large family was dismembered towards the end of the 20th century". Personally, I think they're still hacking off limbs, it's quite the circus.
Bulb with bulbil photo credit: Michael Goodyear
Description/Culture: You can get a pretty good idea from the photos, can be confused with Nothoscordum bivalve (a native actually). They are quite similar, I think the easiest way to tell the difference is to just look at some photos. Let me google that for you:
Anyways, O. umbellatum loves wet Springs but is quite tolerant of drought in the summer. It does very well here. It will grow wherever you give it the opportunity to, either by seed or vegetative reproduction as offsets of the initial bulb. Lots of other information out there so I won't get into it too deep for this one. It was brought over as an ornamental and has escaped to do its own thing (slightly jealous at the moment).
Etc.: Reports on it being edible, but only after cooking. Looks to have concentrations of alkaloids which are typically disruptive to heart function. I have eaten Triteleia laxa before, another member of the family, and found them to be quite delicious and similar in taste to potatoes. Apparently Native Americans ate Triteleia so I figured I'd give it a shot. I'll have to do a fair bit more research before thinking about nibbling on them, and would advise you do the same before considering eating them.
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