Ornithogalum narbonense
Encyclopedia
Ornithogalum narbonense, common names Narbonne Star-of-Bethlehem, is a herbaceous
Herbaceous
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 perennial flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

 with underground bulbs, belonging to the genus Ornithogalum of the Asparagaceae
Asparagaceae
Asparagaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots.In earlier classification systems, the species involved were often treated as belonging to the family Liliaceae...

family. The Latin name Ornithogalum of the Genus, meaning "bird's milk", derives from the Greek, while the species name narbonense refers to the French town of Narbonne.

Description

Ornithogalum narbonense reaches on average 40–50 cm (15.7–19.7 ) of height, with a maximum of 70 centimetres (27.6 in). The bulbs are whitish and ovoid. The stems are erect and the long leaves are fleshy and lance-shaped, 8–15 mm (0.31496062992126–0.590551181102362 ) wide. The raceme is pyramidal, with 25-75 hermaphrodite flowers. Each flower has a long bract of 1–2 cm (0.393700787401575–0.78740157480315 ) and six star-shaped milky white petals bearing a pale green central vein, while the buds are oval, with longitudinal green and white stripes. The six stamens have a white filament holding yellow anthers of 4 millimetre (0.15748031496063 in). The flowers are pollinated by insects. The flowering period extends from May through June.

Gallery


Distribution

This species is present in the Mediterranean Basin, Turkey, Armenia and northwestern Iran.

Habitat

These plants grow in fields and grassy and dry areas, in waste ground and in rocky terrains. They can be found at an altitude of 0–1400 mm (0–55.1 ) above sea level.

External links

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