ORNITHOGALUM DIVERGENS

Family and Genus:- See- HYACINTHACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Ornithogalum umbellatum subsp. divergens,

Ornithogalum umbellatum subsp. divergen Ornithogalum umbellatum var.

divergens.

Meaning:- Ornithogalum (Gr) Bird-milk, a name used by the Greek physician and

botanist Dioscorides for plants yielding bird-lime.

Divergens (L) Spreading out, wide-spreading.

General description:- Bulbous plant.

Bulb:-

1) Surrounded by numerous bulbils which remain dormant for at least a year.

Scape:-

1) Glabrous, the aerial part 5-11 cm.

Leaves:-

1) 4-7, ascending to erect, linear, canaliculate, 3-6 mm wide, green with a whitish

stripe on the upper surface, glabrous.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, 6-15-flowered, wide.

2) Perianth-segments, 15-24 mm, with a wide green stripe on the back.

3) Pedicels, deflexed or refracted in fruit, with a pulvinus at the base.

4) Bracts, shorter than the pedicels.

5) Filaments, entire.

6) Ovary, cylindrical to obovoid, as long as or longer than style.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, cylindrical to ovoid; angles contiguous in pairs, obtuse, prominent,

separated by shallow furrows.

2) Seeds, with ovate to orbicular epidermal cells.

Key features:-

1) Capsule, before dehiscence with 6 scarcely to strongly thickened, keeled or

rounded angles, separated by shallow furrows; testa with ovate to orbicular

sub-epidermal cells.

2) Bulbs, sprouting in autumn; surrounded by bulbils which remain dormant for at

least a year.

4) Fruiting pedicels, patent or ± deflexed.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Dry pastures, cultivated, fallow and abandoned land up to 1000m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece. Widespread in Europe and the Mediterranean

area. Limited distribution on Crete mainly around the three main massifs

Flowering time:- Mar-Apr.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton