Grazing in Michiana
Continuing the series for The Farmer's Exchange, I plan on bringing you a monthly edition of my "Pasture Plant Profiles." I will focus on one less-talked-about plant commonly found in pastures in the Great Lakes region and beyond.
In this series, I will focus on if that plant is invasive or not, what it adds to the pasture landscape/how livestock utilize it, and some cool and interesting history about the plant I am profiling for the month.
For the month of March, we will be looking at a common pasture flower frequently found in reclaimed pastures and homesteads, the Star of Bethlehem.
Star of Bethlehem is a perennial bulbous plant, which dies back each year after flowering in an underground storage bulb, and in the following year regrows from these shallow-rooted, ovoid-shaped bulbs. These bulbs usually have a thin membranous skin or coat like a culinary onion, but are only ½ to 1 inches long and ¾ to 1 inch in diameter.
During dormancy the bulb forms multiple leaf-bearing "bulbils" that soon separate, forming a new plant close by. Each bulb of the star of Bethlehem can produce up to 12 leaves which are grooved, smooth and linear with a white to light green midrib on the upper surface, and can grow up to 12 inches long in ideal conditions, the width of each leaf is generally only ¼ inch broad.
Flowering of the Star of Bethlehem is usually in the early to mid spring, hence its nickname of "Easter Grass." Each bulb usually produces between 6 to 20 individual flowers on ascending stems. Each flower is white and measures about 1 to 1.5 inches across.
The Star of Bethlehem bears both male and female reproductive features and produces a fruit which is oblong-ovoid shaped with three sides and six ribs. Within it, each side contains many seeds with a black coat called "phytomelan."
Originally native to most of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia, Star of Bethlehem has been frequently used as an ornamental garden plant from which it has either spread or escaped and naturalized across North America, where it is now considered an aggressive and noxious weed of lawns, gardens and pastures. It can be difficult to eradicate.
Since one of the methods of propagation for the Star of Bethlehem is to produce bulbils, it can quickly dominate and smother other plants in the area. Star of Bethlehem prefers damp habitats, being found along rivers, streams and lower, wet areas of pastures. It is tolerant of partial to full shade and to many soil types.
Here we are in months and months of me contributing to The Farmer's Exchange, and I have never found a plant that contributes nothing to a pasture, until today. Usually I can defend a toxic plant in that it is a home to a species of insect, or a song or rangeland bird uses it in some fashion either for food or shelter. The Star of Bethlehem offers nothing, but perhaps some fleeting beauty in the spring.
As previously mentioned, the plant is self-fertile and bears both male and female reproductive features, so while it can be pollinated, it is not necessary or even its preferred method of reproduction.
The Star of Bethlehem is toxic, containing cardiac glycosides, specifically "convallatoxin" which causes nausea, salivation, vomiting, diarrhea, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal pain, burning, swelling of the lips, tongue and throat, skin irritation, and death in both humans and livestock.
Leonardo da Vinci drew the Star of Bethlehem and included the plant in one of his depictions of "Leda and the Swan," in which the flowers are held in Leda's left hand. In folklore, the biblical star of Bethlehem is said to have fallen to the earth and shattered into pieces which became the ubiquitous white flowers.
A biblical passage in 2 Kings 6:25 relates an account of Samaria where the population consumed the "excrement of doves." "There was a great famine in Samaria; and behold, they besieged it, until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a fourth of a kab of dove's dung for five shekels of silver."
There has been considerable discussion in that it was in fact the plant Star of Bethlehem which grew abundantly in Palestine, the white colour of which resembled the excrement of birds, hence the name Ornithogalum (translating to "bird milk"), and which was still eaten by the poor of that country.