Ornithogalum umbellatum L.
Garden Star-of-Bethlehem, Nap-at-noon, Pyrenees Star of Bethlehem
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.
At a glance
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.
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.
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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 5 / 5–7 | 6 / 5–8 | 10 / 8–11 | 13 / 12–14 | 17 / 15–18 | 20 / 18–21 | 22 / 20–24 | 22 / 20–24 | 18 / 17–20 | 14 / 14–16 | 9 / 9–10 | 6 / 5–7 |
| Night °C | 1 / -0–2 | 1 / -0–2 | 3 / 2–4 | 5 / 4–6 | 9 / 8–10 | 12 / 11–13 | 14 / 14–15 | 14 / 13–15 | 11 / 11–13 | 8 / 8–10 | 4 / 4–6 | 1 / 1–3 |
| Rain mm | 77 / 64–83 | 60 / 53–65 | 69 / 57–75 | 47 / 43–65 | 66 / 60–72 | 73 / 58–81 | 80 / 61–89 | 76 / 58–91 | 76 / 65–92 | 82 / 72–103 | 81 / 69–95 | 81 / 73–88 |
| DLI | 5 / 5–8 | 10 / 9–14 | 17 / 16–21 | 27 / 26–29 | 32 / 32–35 | 33 / 33–37 | 32 / 32–37 | 28 / 27–32 | 19 / 18–24 | 12 / 11–15 | 6 / 6–9 | 4 / 3–7 |
| RH % | 68 / 66–69 | 65 / 63–66 | 63 / 61–64 | 60 / 59–62 | 60 / 59–61 | 60 / 59–62 | 61 / 58–63 | 61 / 59–62 | 63 / 61–63 | 65 / 64–65 | 68 / 66–68 | 69 / 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
Photographs
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.
Related
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.
Acer campestre Field Maple
Glechoma hederacea Creeping Charlie
Plantago major Broadleaf Plantain
Ribes rubrum Common Currant
Stellaria media Chickweed
Valeriana officinalis Common ValerianOther Ornithogalum 3 in the reference
Ornithogalum dubium Gold Chincherinchee
Ornithogalum sardienii Potato ChinkHistory & 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search APIclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.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-derivationopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery 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.








