Ornithogalum umbellatum May 12th 2025 – Star of Bethlehem

This species has more English names than any plant we’ve featured so far. I’ve come across 16 names: Star of Bethlehem, Sleepydick, Summer Snowflake, Starflower, Summer Snowflake, Summer Snowdrop, Grass Lily, Pyrenees’ Star of Bethlehem, Nap-at-noon, Chinkerichee, Eleven-o’clock-lady, Ten-o’clock-lady, Rain Lily, Bath Asparagus, Sleepy-dick and Dove’s Dung. Fortunately, the Latin name has remained unchanged since Linnaeus described the plant in his Species Plantarum in 1753.

Botanical poster by the 18th Century German natural history illustrator Johann Georg Sturm  (1742–1793). Painter: Jacob Sturm, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The first record from the wild seems to have been by William Turner, the ‘father of English botany’ in 1548. He wrote: “I neuer sawe it in Englande, sauyng onely besyde Shene herde by the Temmes syde..” It is currently considered to be a native plant in Britain although we cannot be certain. Alice Coates, in her Flowers and their Histories cites early herbalist Henry Lyte (1529-1607) as calling it “Wild Field Onyon” and saying it is a ‘foreign flower’. Coates also writes that it was already widely used as a garden ornamental by 1597. It may be that true natives are confined to the south-eastern part of Britain and the others originated from material imported from the Continent.

Growing wild in dune slacks at Gullane, East Lothian. Image: Chris Jeffree.

Formerly Ornithogalum umbellatum was placed in the Lily Family, Liliaceae, but it has been reassigned to the Asparagus Family Asparagaceae, joining the likes of Asparagus, Bluebell, Lily of the Valley, Agave and Hosta. But Ornithogalum if quite different from these plants, so why has it been moved? Its seed coat has phytomelanin, a charcoal-like protective coating, found mostly in the Asparagales. I expect molecular genetics has confirmed its rightful home, but I have been unable to trace a precise reference.  

Detail to show the unusual floral structure. Readers may like to read the description in Clapham, Tutin and Warburg’s Flora: “Tepals free, 1.5-2 cm, oblanceolate-oblong or linear-oblong, white with green band on back. Stamens c 1/2 as long, filaments flattened, lanceolate, acuminate, hypogynous”. But nowadays we think a picture is better than words. Images: Chris Jeffree.

Star of Bethlehem is known as a ‘biblical plant’. I have been looking into this claim. It seems that Linnaeus used a biblical reference when he suggested the English name Dove’s Dung. My enquiry took me to the Bible, to the Book of Kings: 2 Kings 6:25. Here we find especially harrowing passages involving famine (do not read Kings if you are of delicate disposition, but view this series of illustrations from Arabs for Christ). The relevant bible passage is:

“And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver”.

Depiction of biblical famine. The siege lasted so long that food supplies in Samaria became scarce. People were starving. Any food left was being sold at ridiculously high prices, including “Dove’s dung”. Image from https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/elisha-siege/

In these bad times with no other food, people were selling ass’s heads and dove’s dung at inflated prices (yes, to eat). It isn’t clear what the word ‘cab’ means although some translations of the biblical text use the word ‘cup’ and I’ve also seen North American translations as ‘pint’. Dove’s dung may not have been avian faeces but wild onions, which might possibly have been the bulbs of Ornithogalum umbellatum. Far-fetched? Yes, but that hasn’t stopped academics debating the matter (Dafni and Böck 2025).

Star of Bethlehem. Overwintering bulbs from the garden. Notice the developing bulblets clustered around the base. Image: Chris Jeffree.

The plant grows from a bulb, and then it flowers in the Spring. Its leaves are long and slender 15-30 cm x 6 mm, with a whitish stripe down the midrib. The flowers are star-like, erect, and they open in the late morning (hence the names Eleven-o’clock-lady and Ten-o’clock-lady). There are six petals (botanically called ‘tepals’ as there is no differentiation between petal and sepal) and they have a green stripe on their underside. After flowering the above-ground plant dies down and the bulb becomes dormant. It needs a winter chilling treatment to continue sprouting every spring.

Ornithogalum umbellatum, distribution in Britain and Ireland according to BSBI records.

In Britain, according to the BSBI’s Atlas 2020 it occurs on rough ground, arable margins, roadsides, tracksides, old meadows and pastures and in open woodlands. When I’ve seen it in Scotland, it has never been abundant – occurring as scattered plants in damp grassland before the grass has become tall. In North America it can be a tiresome weed. When I google the species, I find many blogs and movies about how this plant can be ‘controlled’ on golf courses and lawns in the USA. I would have thought the simplest and cheapest way would be to dig up the bulbs, but methods involving chemical control by spraying are suggested instead. As with many species, Star of Bethlehem is more vigorous as an alien, away from its natural enemies. It’s a very pretty plant, but when it grows on the golf course it is evidently in the wrong place, distracting for the golfers.

Areas in which Ornithogalum umbellatum is considered native (green) and introduced (purple). From Plants of the World Online.

The species exhibits variation in chromosome counts (levels of ploidy). Polyploidy is common in the plant kingdom. Some authors have suggested that 30–80% of all living plant species are polyploid. Chromosomes in plants are often small and quite hard to count, requiring considerable skill with sample preparation and a good microscope.  Chromosome counts for Ornithogalum umbellatum in Britain and France have revealed multiples of 9, as found by Czapik (1968): he obtained 2n = 18,27,36,45,54,72. But he also found cases which did not fall neatly into this pattern: 2n = 19,20,21,22,23,28, 43, 52, and a few that were completely different. Is there a functional difference associated with chromosome number? Moret (1991), working in France, found that diploids (2n = 18) reproduced mainly by sexual means, and the polyploids mainly used vegetative reproduction.

In Stace’s New Flora of the British Isles two subspecies are recognised. Subspecies umbellatum has 2n = 54 (hexaploid) and subspecies campestre has 2n = 27 (triploid). The one with the least chromosomes has shorter tepals (15-20 mm long), whilst the other has tepals measuring 20-30 mm. It is considered that campestre is most likely native, and found in East England whilst umbellatum is derived from garden introductions.

Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem Gagea lutea. Image: Chris Jeffree.

Star of Bethlehem is a poisonous plant (despite the biblical story). Historically, it has been used in some traditional dishes and herbal medicines and it might sometimes have been confused with onions, chives and garlics, leading to illness and death.

There is a related species with the name Yellow Star of Bethlehem, Gagea lutea. It remains in the Liliaceae, despite its great similarity to Ornithogalum. We covered Gagea in our blog a few years ago. You can see it here.

Note about the banner image

The species illustrated is Ornithogalum nutans. Image by Chris Jeffree.

References consulted

Coats A (1968) Flowers and their histories. Adam and Charles Black, London.

Czapik, R. (1968). Chromosome numbers of Ornithogalum umbellatum L. from three localities in England. Watsonia, 6(6), 345-349.

Dafni A and Böck B (2025). A Review of Ethnobotanical, Ecological and Lexical Evidence to Identify a Biblical Plant. Journal of Ethnobiology. 02780771251325398.

Moret J (1991). Reproductive strategies of the polyploid complex Ornithogalum umbellatum (Hyacinthaceae) in France. Bulletin de Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Section B, Adansonia, 13, 25-46. (Abstract only can be found on the internet).

Steckel LE, McClure MA. (2015). Oh, Beautiful Star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum). Weed Technology 29(4):874-877. doi:10.1614/WT-D-15-00065.1

©John Grace