Took this photo the other day of this small, white flower. I assume it's a bulb. There was no foliage, but a main stem with branches and the flowers. Located in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Name: Arturo Tarak Bariloche,Rio Negro, Argentina (Zone 8a)
Hi, I'm sure that it is a Ornithogallum, however the lack of leaves makes me wonder whether it is O.umbellatum. Searching a bit through different dbases, including my Willis dictionary of flowering plants, there seem to be as many as 150 species from the Old world. RHS has 183 entries. So perhaps it is one very simmilar to O.u. but flowers when leaves die out. I remember last summer that a small group of my O.u. did flower after the leaves yellowed so I even cannot discard this species as well. Somehow the umbell in this pic is much more open than my O.u.s and the flower stalk is longer and sturdier.
O. umbellatum is more widely sold. I checked mine from when I first had it in a pot in 2010, there wasn't many leaves showing but they do look strong. I blew the ID photo up, the flower form looks correct as well as the branching and green backs to the petals.
In 2012 in a flower bed. some leaves are visible which look to be dying back, this was on 14th May but I haven't seen them flowering yet this year, I haven't seen leaves growing either so they might have 'disappeared'.
Name: Arturo Tarak Bariloche,Rio Negro, Argentina (Zone 8a)
Hi Janet. with your first bet. I would guess that it is highly probable that it is O.umbellatum. Apparently it can become an invasive weed if left unchecked in Eastern US.
I looked for mine and they are no longer there, they were growing well last year so I'm wondering what happened to them. We have a bulb fly, Merodon equestris which naturally lays it's eggs in bulbs with the larvae eating them, I don't know if they eat these. There is another fly we have, Eumerus sp. which is much smaller and is called the Onion Bulb Fly. It could be either, or both of them.
It does look like the leaves can die off completely by the time flowers appear. Dead or dying leaves can be seen in your link Sue. It probably depends on the climate.
O. graminifolium is the synonym in CoL. It said for that O. angustifolium was an illegal name so I disregarded it. In the ID plant there are what could be dead leaves also - I can't see the base of most of the flowering stems in the original post, not sure if that's an iPad thing or not, so there could be more dead leaves off the bottom of the picture.
This is almost impossible to kill and hard to remove by digging. It spreads mostly by seed. I understand there is a new chemical that is effective. Two years ago I had maybe five flowers. I have dug and dug where I could and removed many bulbs, but some is in between iris I am not ready to dig. In the same area saw at least 20 flower spikes this year..
with your first bet. I would guess that it is highly probable that it is O.umbellatum. Apparently it can become an invasive weed if left unchecked in Eastern US.
