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Gagea lutea

Common name:	Yellow Star Of Bethlehem	Family:	Liliaceae
Author:	(L.)Ker-Gawl.	Botanical references:	17, 200
Synonyms:	Gagea sylvatica ((Pers.)Loudon.)
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Europe, including Britain, from Scandanavia south and east to Spain and temperate Asia to Japan.
Habitat:	Damp woods and pastures, especially on basic soils[17].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	0

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	Ornithogalum luteum[G] Primula officinalis[G,H] Primula veris[B,DUTCH,E,G,H,HORTIPLEX,L,Mh,P]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Artetyke [H], Arthritica [H], Bosgeelster [D], Buckles [H], Cowslip [H,MS,L,E], Cowslip Primrose [B,P], Crewel [H], Cuhacicegi [E], Drelip [H], Fairy Cups [H], Gulden Sleutelbloem [D], Herb Peter [H], Herba Sancti Petri [E], Key Flower [H], Key Of Heaven [H], Mayflower [H], Our Lady's Keys [H], Paigle [H], Palsywort [H], Password [H], Peggle [H], Petty Mulleins [H], Plumrocks [H], Primavera [E], Yellow Star Of Bethlehem [H], Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem [L],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	lutea = yellow
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Liliales. Lily family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	Europe Spain Turkey

Physical Characteristics

Bulb growing to 0.15m. It is hardy to zone 6. It is in flower from March to May. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Insects. We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 0/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Woodland, Dappled Shade, Shady Edge.

Edible Uses

Leaves Root.

Bulb - raw or cooked[4, 105, 177]. A famine food, it is only used in times of scarcity[4].
Young leaves - cooked.

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

None known

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

Requires a moist soil, preferring one on the alkaline side of neutral, and succeeding in sun or shade.
The dormant bulbs are fairly hardy and will withstand soil temperatures down to at least -10° c[214].

Propagation

Seed - sow spring in a greenhouse[200]. Sow the seed thinly so that there is no need to transplant them, and grow the seedlings on in the same pot in the greenhouse for their first year or two. Give an occasional liquid feed to ensure they do not become nutrient deficient. Pot up the small bulbs when the plants are dormant, placing 2 - 3 bulbs in each pot. Grow them on for another year or two in the greenhouse before planting them out when they are dormant.
Division. We have no details of when is the best time to divide the bulbs but suggest doing it after the leaves die down in the summer.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

Details of Medicinal Uses, Habitats, etc. in M. Grieve A Modern Herbal (1931) [4]
[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for Primula veris (a possible synonym).

[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[V] Images from the Vascular Plant Image Gallery of the Texas A& M Bioinformatics Working Group.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for the family Liliaceae.

[CHINA] Data Very detailed botanical/identification info. from the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[4] Grieve. A Modern Herbal. Penguin 1984 ISBN 0-14-046-440-9
Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[177] Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169
An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of latin names with a brief list of edible parts.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[214] Matthews. V. The New Plantsman. Volume 1, 1994. Royal Horticultural Society 1994 ISBN 1352-4186
A quarterly magazine, it has articles on Himalayacalamus hookerianus, hardy Euphorbias and an excellent article on Hippophae spp.

Readers Comments

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963

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