Gagea villosa (M.Bieb.) Sweet Hairy Star Of Bethlehem

Gagea villosa (M.Bieb.) Sweet - Hairy Star Of Bethlehem

Scientific Description:

Bulbs with brown hard tunics, new bulb forming beside old, usually with a wrinkled skin, usually without recurved thickened roots. Basal leaves 2, linear, to 16 cm × 1−2.5 mm, exceeding inflorescence, D-shaped in section, glabrous or shortly hairy; more leaves, with bulbils in their axils at ground level, often present. Inflorescence subumbellate, 1−10 cm, hairy or glabrous. Cauline leaves opposite or subopposite, lower in robust specimens with a single flower or smaller umbel in its axil, very rarely with bulbils in axils, not exceeding flowers, to 9 mm broad. Flowers 1−15. Perianth segments yellow, narrowly ovate, 7−10(−20) mm at flowering, elongating and curling to 11−18 mm in fruit, blunt, sometimes hairy outside, especially at base. Capsule obcordate or ovoid, emarginate.

 

var. villosa

Perianth segments more than 10 mm; flowers more than 4, usually c. 8

 

Flowering Time: March−May.

Habitat: Steppe, cultivated fields and open woods, 350−2300 m.

 

Reference:
Rix EM (1984). Gagea villosa (Bieb.) Duby, In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 8: 326.

Public Description:

Gagea villosa var. villosa, known as “Hairy Star Of Bethlehem”, is native to Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. It is a bulbous perennial herb that has small, hard dark brown crusted bulbs under the soil, small yellow flowers and generally does not exceed 10 cm in length. It blooms between March and May and is especially found in the steppes, cultivated areas and open forest.

 

References:

Anonymous (2017). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gagea_villosa/Accessed date: 14.03.2017.

Tekşen M (2012). Gagea Salisb., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 607–607.