Species
+

Ornithogalum umbellatum L.

Garden Star-of-Bethlehem, Nap-at-noon, Pyrenees Star of Bethlehem

Climate known 48 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ornithogalum umbellatum, the garden star-of-Bethlehem, grass lily, nap-at-noon, or eleven-o'clock lady, is a perennial bulbous flowering plant in the asparagus family (Asparagaceae). O. umbellatum is a relatively short plant, occurring in tufts of basal linear leaves, producing conspicuous white flowers, in a stellate pattern, in mid to late spring. The flowers open late in the day, but when closed have a green stripe on the outside. It is native throughout southern and central Europe, and north-western Africa. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ornithogalum umbellatum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ornithogalum

Ornithogalum is a genus of perennial plants mostly native to southern Europe and southern Africa belonging to the family Asparagaceae. Some species are native to other areas such as the Caucasus. Some species are classified as noxious invasive weeds in some portions of North America. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ornithogalum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Great Britain, Austria, Belgium +18
Wild records
355 in range· 18 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
868mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 82 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Ornithogalum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 868 mm a year, wettest October at 82 mm, driest April at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Hyacinthus umbellatus (L.) E.H.L.Krause; Ornithogalum affine Boreau; Ornithogalum angustifolium Boreau; Ornithogalum boraeanum Jord. & Fourr.; Ornithogalum campestre (Savi) Prain and 22 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Ornithogalum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (626 mm of 868 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 15.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 868 mm a year, wettest October at 82 mm, driest April at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

868 mm a year at the habitat, 626 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 82 mm, driest April at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 794 mm to 936 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -8.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.6 °C, the absolute minimum -19.9 °C, about 60 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells -0.1 °C to 2.1 °C), warmest day 22.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 868 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 342 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -19.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost29.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-19.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 4–33RH 60–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 342 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 5–76 / 5–810 / 8–1113 / 12–1417 / 15–1820 / 18–2122 / 20–2422 / 20–2418 / 17–2014 / 14–169 / 9–106 / 5–7
Night °C1 / -0–21 / -0–23 / 2–45 / 4–69 / 8–1012 / 11–1314 / 14–1514 / 13–1511 / 11–138 / 8–104 / 4–61 / 1–3
Rain mm77 / 64–8360 / 53–6569 / 57–7547 / 43–6566 / 60–7273 / 58–8180 / 61–8976 / 58–9176 / 65–9282 / 72–10381 / 69–9581 / 73–88
DLI5 / 5–810 / 9–1417 / 16–2127 / 26–2932 / 32–3533 / 33–3732 / 32–3728 / 27–3219 / 18–2412 / 11–156 / 6–94 / 3–7
RH %68 / 66–6965 / 63–6663 / 61–6460 / 59–6260 / 59–6160 / 59–6261 / 58–6361 / 59–6263 / 61–6365 / 64–6568 / 66–6869 / 66–70

Each figure is the median across the 342 grid cells holding the 354 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 768:3707 (51.575, 5.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -19.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 342 distinct grid cells holding the 354 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 768:3707 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 51.50_5.625, lapse-corrected -12 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 9 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGreat Britain, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Ukraine· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Baltic States, South European Russia, West Siberia, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New Zealand South, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Utah, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.96, 5.65 · in the densest population, 247 records (70% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 355 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 18 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 514 km away. 271 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the centre of the tenth-degree cell nearest the middle (no openly licensed record lies in the population, so no record's coordinates are published) of the densest 1° population of the 355 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ornithogalum umbellatumOrnithogalum umbellatumOrnithogalum umbellatumOrnithogalum umbellatumOrnithogalum umbellatumOrnithogalum umbellatumOrnithogalum umbellatumOrnithogalum umbellatum

Photographs: (c) Gavin Slater, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Conrad Altmann, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Dan Vickers, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Natalie Lemanski, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); no rights reserved · CC0 (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ornithogalum umbellatum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Evaluation of Some Wild Plants Aspect of Their Nutritional Values Used as Vegetable in Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey
Nazım Şekeroğlu, Faruk Özkutlu, Metin Deveci, Özbay Dede (2006) · Asian Journal of Plant Sciences
Accumulation of apocarotenoids in mycorrhizal roots of Ornithogalum umbellatum
Willibald Schliemann, Jürgen Schmidt, Manfred Nimtz, Victor Wray (2006) · Phytochemistry
Allelopathic activity of leaching from dry leaves and exudate from roots of ground cover plants assayed on agar
Sayaka Shiraishi, Izumi Watanabe, Katsuji Kuno, Yoshiharu Fujii (2002) · Weed Biology and Management
Pupal stages of three species of the phytophagous genus Merodon Meigen (Diptera: Syrphidae)
Jelena Preradović, Andrijana Andrić, Snežana Radenković, Ljiljana Šašić Zorić (2018) · Zootaxa
Puccinia Hordei on Barley and Ornithogalum Umbellatum in South Australia.
H. Wallwork, PB Preece, PJ Cotterill (1992) · Australasian Plant Pathology
Role of DNA endoreduplication, lipotubuloids, and gibberellic acid in epidermal cell growth during fruit development of Ornithogalum umbellatum
Marta Kwiatkowska, Katarzyna Popłońska, Andrzej Kaźmierczak, Dariusz Stępiński (2007) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Il genere « Ornithogalum » L. (Liliaceae) in Italia. 3.
Noemi Tornadore, Fabio Garbari (1979) · Webbia
Unusual plasties in an endomycorrhizal root
Silvano Scannerini, Paola Bonfante (1977) · Canadian Journal of Botany
Phytochemical fingerprint and biological activity of raw and heat-treated Ornithogalum umbellatum
Aytül Uzun Akgeyik, Emine Yalçın, Kültiğin Çavuşoğlu (2023) · Scientific Reports
Cutinsomes and lipotubuloids appear to participate in cuticle formation in Ornithogalum umbellatum ovary epidermis: EM–immunogold research
Maria Kwiatkowska, Agnieszka Wojtczak, Katarzyna Popłońska, Justyna Teresa Polit (2014) · PROTOPLASMA

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ornithogalum 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.