Bulb · Asparagaceae
Star of Bethlehem
Ornithogalum umbellatum
A low spring bulb whose white, green-backed star flowers open flat at midday over slim grassy leaves.
Full sun
Every 5–10 days
USDA 4–9
6–12 in · 15–30 cm
Overview
Up close, star of Bethlehem shows white, star-shaped flowers that open flat and wide, each slender petal carrying a clean green stripe down its back. The blooms sit low over the plant, spreading open around midday and drawing shut again by late afternoon or under a gray sky, the closing habit that earned the name nap-at-noon. Slim, grass-like leaves rise first, and the flower stems thread up through them in late spring.
Underground, the plant grows from a rounded white bulb that gathers small offset bulblets tight around itself, a knot of pale bulbs that keeps expanding. That crowding is what makes it so easy to keep and so quick to spread, pushing a compact clump wider into the lawn season by season. It sits in the asparagus family, and across much of the northern United States it has crept out of gardens into pastures and turf, where it reads as a weed.
For all its delicate looks, the whole plant is poisonous. Every part carries cardiac glycosides, packed densest in the bulb, and the sap that seeps from a cut stem or crushed leaf can sting bare skin. Handle it with that in mind: grow the flowers, but keep the bulbs away from children and animals, and wear gloves whenever you lift them.
Care
The short version: sink the pale bulbs into moist, well-drained soil in fall under full sun to part shade, keep them watered as the leaves and white flowers come through spring, then let them dry down and die back over summer.
Light
The white stars open widest and most freely in full sun, though the plant still flowers in partial sun and light shade, holding up under about 25 percent shade. It settles happily beneath deciduous trees, where it runs through its leafy growth early, before the branches overhead close into full canopy.
Water
Keep the soil evenly moist through spring growth and bloom, adding water about every 5 to 10 days when the rain thins out, and the leaves and flowers stay firm and fresh. Once established the plant shrugs off summer drought, and it turns against wet ground the moment the foliage yellows and goes dormant in late summer.
Soil
Root it in moist, fertile, well-drained loam worked full of crumbly organic matter. The bulb takes any pH from 6.0 to 7.5 in stride, so the thing that counts is drainage, not richness, since soil that holds water turns the firm white bulb soft with rot.
Temperature
The bulb is cold-hardy to the core, sitting out winter lows near 5°F (-15°C) and summer highs around 86°F (30°C) without visible harm. It rides out the freeze buried in the soil and sends up its first green blades once spring warms the ground.
Humidity
There is no humidity mark to hit, since ordinary outdoor air keeps the plant in good form. What the leaves and bulb really depend on is sharp drainage at the roots rather than moisture around them.
Feeding
The plant eats little. A handful of balanced bulb fertilizer or compost turned into the bed at planting, with a light feed in early spring as the first shoots show, is all it wants, and a richer soil only speeds the pale bulblets on their way.
Pruning
Leave the yellowing leaves in place after the flowers pass, since they feed the bulb's reserves back up for next spring. Cut away the bare, spent flower stalks to slow self-seeding, and pull on gloves first, because the sap can irritate skin.
Repotting
Lift and split the clumps every 3 to 4 years once the bulbs pack together underground. The signs are plain once you dig in: fewer flowers up top, fat bulbs shouldering up to the surface, and a mass of small white bulblets pressed tight around each parent.
Size & spacing
The plant keeps close to the ground, its flower stems reaching only 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 cm), while each clump broadens to 12 to 24 inches (30 to 60 cm) across and keeps stretching wider. Give the low green tuft some space, or a contained bed, so the widening clump does not lap over its neighbors.
When to plant
The plant runs on a tight spring schedule. Push the dormant bulbs into the soil in September or October, let them wait out winter, and thin green leaves break the surface first, followed by white flowers from May into June. Once the petals drop, the leaves fade to yellow and the plant sinks back into the ground for summer.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Sow: not typically started indoors; plant dormant bulbs directly
- Plant: fall (September to October)
- Harvest: late spring to early summer (May to June)
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 4–9
Temperature: down to -34°C
Troubleshooting
Two very different fates show on the plant itself. In wet ground the firm white bulb turns soft and brown, while in open ground it multiplies into wide green patches that creep past their bounds. Match the look of what you have below and step in early, before a mushy bulb spreads decay or a loose bulblet founds a new colony.
Soft brown bulbs that never surface
A firm white bulb gone soft, brown, and mushy is in the grip of bulb rot, and wet soil is the trigger. Waterlogged ground, or heavy moisture soaking the bulb through its summer rest, breaks the tissue down. Lift a doubtful bulb and press it: soft, foul-smelling flesh instead of firm white means it is finished, so throw the spoiled ones out and reset the sound bulbs in ground that drains cleanly.
Fix:
- Lift and discard affected bulbs
- Improve drainage by amending with grit or organic matter or move to a raised, better-drained site
- Replant healthy firm bulbs in well-drained soil
Widening green patches past the border
Those spreading green patches trace back to offset bulblets, the small pale bulbs that ring each parent and let the plant march out of a bed into lawn and pasture. Dig the whole clump and pick out every little bulblet before it loosens from the cluster, then seal the lot in a bag rather than the compost. The dig comes round again for a few seasons, since any bulblet left in the soil sends up fresh growth.
Fix:
- Dig out clumps removing all bulblets before they detach
- Bag and dispose of dug bulbs rather than composting
- Repeat removal over several seasons as missed bulblets resprout
Toxicity
The clean white flowers give no hint of it, but this is a poisonous plant through and through. Every part holds cardiac glycosides, wound tightest into the bulb, and the toxins can sicken cats, dogs, horses, and livestock and harm people too. No part is edible, and even the water a cut stem stands in has been linked to poisoning, so keep the plant clear of any mouth that might test it.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds · People
Cats Severe
A cat that bites into any part soon drools, vomits, turns from its food, and scours with diarrhea. The pale bulb is the sharpest hazard, holding the glycosides at their strongest, and a larger mouthful can jolt the heart out of rhythm and leave the cat limp or collapsed.
Dogs Severe
Dogs come to grief most often by digging up and chewing the bulbs. Look for a drooling mouth, a turned-down bowl, vomiting, and diarrhea, and count any stagger, weakness, or stumbling heartbeat as an emergency.
Horses Severe
A grazing horse may slobber heavily and show colic-like pain low in the belly, loose diarrhea, and quivering muscle tremors. As the toxin gathers, the heartbeat races and skips, and that racing, uneven pulse is where the real danger sits.
Rabbits Severe
Those same cardiac glycosides leave nothing on the plant safe for a rabbit to graze. Expect a sour, upset gut and a refusal to touch food, and know that enough of the bulb can unsettle the heart, so keep the plant well past reach.
Livestock Severe
Cattle, sheep, and goats often show it within hours, first slobbering, then scouring with diarrhea and cramping in the belly. Once the heart rate and rhythm break stride the case turns grave, and grazing down enough bulbs can kill.
Birds Severe
Birds take no shelter from the cardiac toxins either. A poultry flock or pet bird that pecks at the leaves or bulbs can end up with a distressed gut and the same dangerous drag on the heart, so wall them off from any patch.
People Caution
No part of this plant is food, and small children are the ones to guard. Swallowed leaves, flowers, or above all a bulb can force vomiting and, in quantity, the same heart-rhythm trouble seen in pets, so treat it as a poison and wash the sap from your hands after any contact.
Keep bulbs and plants away from pets and children; wear gloves when handling as the sap can irritate skin. Even vase water from cut stems has been implicated in poisoning.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
Poison Control: (800) 222-1222
Canada
Poison Centres: 1-844-764-7669
Varieties
There are no fancy named forms to compare here. What grows in gardens is the plain wild species, white stars and green stripes just as they appear in the wild.
Ornithogalum umbellatum (species)
The wild species carries white, star-shaped flowers striped green down the back that spread open near midday and fold shut by late afternoon or in cloudy weather, the closing habit that gave it the name nap-at-noon.
How to propagate
Making more comes down to those pale bulblets, since the bulb keeps budding off fresh offsets that only need lifting and resetting in the soil.
Offsets & pupsEasy
After foliage dies back in summer or in early fall when dormant · Blooms the following spring once replanted
The surest route runs through those pale offsets. After the foliage has withered in summer or early fall, lift a clump, twist the small bulblets free of the parent bulb, and press them back into the soil about 2 to 3 inches deep, where each swells and flowers the very next spring.
DivisionEasy
Summer dormancy after foliage yellows · One growing season
Division splits a crowded knot of bulbs while making more of them. Once the leaves yellow in summer dormancy, dig the clump and pull the fat bulbs apart; the divisions root in within a single growing season, and the plant keeps budding outward on its own besides.
SeedModerate
Sow ripe seed in fall · Several years to flowering
Seed is the long, slow road. Sow the ripe seed in fall if you care to, but the seedlings inch upward and take several years to reach flowering, which is why nearly every new plant rises from a bulblet rather than a seed.
Myths
Star of Bethlehem is only mildly toxic and does nothing worse than turn a stomach.
Every part of the plant is laced with cardiac glycosides, and the bulb carries them thickest. A small nibble may end at a churned stomach, but a real mouthful can throw the heart into the same dangerous rhythm trouble as foxglove. Treat those white stars as genuinely poisonous, not a passing stomachache.
It is a harmless naturalizing wildflower that is safe to plant anywhere.
It buds off offset bulblets fast, slips past the garden edge, and spreads into a weed of lawns, pastures, and turf. Alabama lists it as a Class C noxious weed. Set it only where its creeping clumps can be held in, if at all.