Beautiful but Deadly

Over the past week, several clumps of star-of-bethlehem have appeared in our flower beds and along our wood border.  Also known as grass lilies, these beautiful immigrants are native to Eurasia; they escaped cultivation in North America and are now widely dispersed in moist, Temperate regions of the Continent.

Characterized by showy, white, star-shaped flowers and grass-like leaves, star-of-bethlehem produces small seeds but reproduces primarily by division of their bulbs; like daylilies, these geophytes are thus often found in dense clumps.  Botanists have long argued whether this wildflower should be grouped with lilies, hyacinths or members of the asparagus family; depending on latitude, they bloom from April to early June.

As is often the case in the plant world, the beauty of grass lilies comes with a price.  All portions of the plant are toxic to mammals (humans included) and this wildflower, which often adorns pastures, has been known to kill livestock.

A Promise Seldom Kept

After a week of mild, sunny weather and a single episode of heavy rain, color has returned to the landscape of central Missouri.  The grays and browns of winter are giving way to greening lawns and flowering plants.  Among the early spring bloomers are red maples, wild cherries, forsythias and several species of magnolia; the flowers of periwinkle, crocuses, daffodils and hyacinths adorn the flower beds and, much to the chagrin of lawn masters, the first crop of dandelions glow from every patch of grass.

This burst of spring seems to promise that winter has retreated to the north, not to return until the waning daylight of November, and that our path to the balmy days of May will be a steady, carefree climb.  Time to get out the gardening tools and mothball the winter coats!

Of course, nature makes no such promise; she is fickle and erratic, especially in March and April.  The conviction that spring weather is here to stay is a human fabrication, the product of hope and denial; while acknowledging the April snowstorms in our past, we promise ourselves that this year will be different.  Such promises are seldom kept; after all, we are powerless when it comes to weather.