ORNITHOGALUM NUTANS

Family and Genus:- See- HYACINTHACEAE

Common Names:- Drooping star-of-Bethlehem

Homotypic Synonyms:-- Albucea nutans, Brizophile nutans, Honorius nutans

Hyacinthus myogalea, Ifuon nutans, Myogalum nutans.

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

botanist Dioscorides for plants yielding bird-lime.

Nutans (L) Drooping, nodding.

General description:- Short to medium bulbous perennial.

Bulb:- With numerous offsets.

Scape:-

1) 15-60 cm. (15-)20-60 cm. glabrous.

Leaves:-

1) 4-6, linear, equalling or exceeding the scape, rather flaccid, 10-15 mm wide, ±

flat, glabrous.

Flowers:-

1) 5-15 in a rather lax raceme, nodding in fruit.

2) Bracts, linear, equalling or exceeding the pedicel.

3) Perianth segments, 20-30 mm, white or greenish-white, with a broad green

stripe on the back.

4) Filaments, connivent to form a cylinder, the 3 inner 3-cuspidate at the apex, with

a median crest.

5) Ovary, broadly ovoid, shorter than the slender style.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, broadly ovoid.

Key features:-

1) Pedicels usually more than 10 mm at anthesis, usually more than 15 mm in

fruit.

2) Inflorescence racemose to corymbose, rarely spiciform.

3) At least the inner filaments tricuspidate.

4) All filaments with the longitudinal crest of the mid-vein not toothed at the apex.

5) Ovary ovoid to subglobose, shorter than style.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Generally a weed of traditional agriculture, sometimes in woodland and

meadows. 0-1800 m.

Distribution:- Rare in W Greece. - Probably native in SE Balkan Peninsula and W

Anatolia, widely naturalised elsewhere, Limited distribution on Crete, mainly in the

Dikti mountain area.

Flowering time:- Mar-June, depending on altitude.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton