Flora of North America species comparison

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Ornithogalum

dame-d'onze-heures, ornithogale, star-of-Bethlehem, étoile de bethléem
Habit Herbs, perennial, scapose, poisonous, from ovoid, tunicate bulbs; bulb tunics white to pale brown, papery.
Leaves

few to several, basal;

blade linear to lanceolate, margins smooth or hairy.
Inflorescences

racemose or corymbose, 2–many-flowered, bracteate;

bracts white, membranous.
Flowers

tepals 6, widely spreading, distinct, equal to slightly unequal;

stamens 6, distinct, dimorphic;

filaments simple or 3-dentate, flattened;

anthers dorsifixed, introrse;

ovary superior, green, 3-locular, cylindric to globose, 6-angled, septal nectaries present;

style 1;

stigma margins entire or indistinctly 3-lobed.
Fruits

capsular, angled, papery, dehiscence loculicidal.
Seeds

numerous, globose to ovoid.
x

= 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11.

Ornithogalum
Distribution
from USDA
Europe; Africa; w Asia [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 100–150 (2 in the flora).

Ornithogalum is a large genus centered in South Africa and around the Mediterranean, with numerous species of horticultural note. Ornithogalum pyrenaicum Linnaeus was apparently naturalized for a number of years at Elkins, West Virginia (E. E. Hutton and R. E. Clarkson 1961), but it is now extirpated from that site. Ornithogalum arabicum Linnaeus, Arabian star flower, O. caudatum Aiton, sea-onion, and O. thyrsoides Jacquin, chincherinchee, are frequently cultivated in the warmer parts of the flora area.

The bulbs of Ornithogalum species are poisonous due to the presence of a variety of cardiotoxic cardenolides (G. E. Burrows and R. J. Tyrl 2001), and the bulbs should not be confused with those of wild onions.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaves 5–10 mm wide; inflorescences racemose, cylindrical, 5–12(–18)-flowered; lower pedicels to 1 cm; flowers nodding, especially after anthesis; filaments 3-dentate.
O. nutans
1. Leaves 3–5 mm wide; inflorescences corymbose, flat-topped, (4–)8–20-flowered; lower pedicels 2–6 cm; flowers erect; filaments simple.
O. umbellatum
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 318. Authors: Gerald B. Straley†, Frederick H. Utech.
Parent taxa Liliaceae
Subordinate taxa
O. nutans, O. umbellatum
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 306. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 145. (1754)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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