Star of Bethlehem
In my continuing quest to identify all the weeds in my yard, I bring you the beautiful Star of Bethlehem! And a big note:
Warning: This plant is EXTREMELY poisonous to humans, canines and grazing animals, even in low doses, and should be removed from any areas where it could be consumed.
Star of Bethlehem plant in my backyard
Apparently the most common species is Ornithogalum umbellatum, based on the berries on mine and the lack of the variegated leaves, I’ve identified the one growing wild in my yard as Ornithogalum arabicum.
This plant grows from a bulb, and will reproduce both by means of it’s fruit as well as “cloning” bulbs off of the parent plant. I just dug well over 100 bulbs out of my backyard. I’d never noticed them bloom before, but some of the bulbs were set quite deeply. Who knows how long they’ve been there?
A closeup of the bulb, showing the root system. The bulbs are easy to pull with a weeding tool.
The bulbs did come up quite easily with my favorite garden tool. You might need to make two thrusts into the ground on two sides of the bulb, but just shoving the tool in all the way and pressing down on the pommel to pry up the bulb worked to get 90% of the bulbs out.
Entire plant, showing juvenile flowers, berries, and roots.
More Info:
This plant should be included in Amy Stewart’s new book “Wicked Plants”