FOTD – September 10 – Spring Starflower (Ipheion uniflorum)

Every year as Spring rolls around i have dozens of these beautiful, small star-shaped flowers burst out of the ground from their Winter slumber. And every year i struggle to remember just what they are called. They flower in Spring and are star-shaped! How hard can it be? – Spring starflower!!! Geez! 🙂

They grow from small bulbs sprout for 2 months and then die off until the next year – no tending necessary!

They are a relative of the onion, belonging to the Allioideae family.

(Click on a pic to open in a new window and click again to see enlarged detail!) 🙂

The flowers are quite ‘stingy’ (as in Scrooge-like, not stabby) – when they first open up only 3 stamen are visible for insects to grab the yellow pollen. After the flower has been open for a day or two the central stigma appears followed by another fresh set of 3 stamen, as can be seen in the lowest of these starflowers above. 🙂

A brand new beauty. 🙂

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link to:

Cee’s Flower of the Day – September 10, 2019 – Dahlia

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