I have it from an extremely reliable source that this is a Star of Bethlehem, which certainly seems like an appropriate name. It’s a lovely bulb-flower that doesn’t linger long. Speaking of bulb-flowers, the daffodils that were flattened a week ago by the heavy, wet snow (still can’t believe we had snow!) are now up and waving in the breeze as if nothing happened.
14 March 2009 at 12:37 pm
Janet Van Fleet says:
What a beautiful flower and photograph; sorry, I think it is not a Star of Bethlehem, though I don’t know what it is (might be an Ipheion). Here’s a description of the SoB (!) from http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/starbeth.htm : From the center of the rosette, there develops one or more flowering stalks about 6-9″ tall. Each stalk terminates in a cyme-like raceme of white flowers. This raceme is rather short and spreading. The lower pedicels are 1-3″ long, while the upper pedicels are somewhat shorter. Both the basal leaves and flowering stalks are hairless. Each flower is about 1″ across when fully open, consisting of 6 white petals, 6 stamens, and a single pistil.
What’s interesting to me is the whole thing about the number of stamens being related to the number of petals. I love going out and spring and seeing that. In your flower, there are 3 wonderful stamens, and three inner petals. Maybe there are three more stamens down deeper in the throat of the flower that relate to the lower 3 petals?
15 March 2009 at 4:51 am
Sammy says:
I looked around on the web and thought that the flowers identified as SoB (yes, !) looked different, but that’s just the thing about common names—what the taxonomists think and what just-folks name things often don’t match….