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Yellow star of Bethlehem is so blooming late after the longest winter Yellow star of Bethlehem is so blooming late after the longest winter
(5 months later)
We first encountered yellow star of Bethlehem along this riverbank on a late March morning almost 40 years ago, when we found a single flowering specimen. It was so unfamiliar then that I thought it must be a garden escape, only realising it was a scarce native after consulting wildflower guides.We first encountered yellow star of Bethlehem along this riverbank on a late March morning almost 40 years ago, when we found a single flowering specimen. It was so unfamiliar then that I thought it must be a garden escape, only realising it was a scarce native after consulting wildflower guides.
Best appreciated on hands and knees, this flower is little more than a few short, thick grass-like leaves and a 10cm-tall umbel of small yellow flowers that usually open at the same time as the lesser celandines. Individual plants don't bloom every year and, when they do, each flower remains green until the petals briefly turn yellow and face the sky for a day or two before fading.Best appreciated on hands and knees, this flower is little more than a few short, thick grass-like leaves and a 10cm-tall umbel of small yellow flowers that usually open at the same time as the lesser celandines. Individual plants don't bloom every year and, when they do, each flower remains green until the petals briefly turn yellow and face the sky for a day or two before fading.
Luck plays a large part in finding it, but we've searched this same place every spring and have usually located a plant or two. Last year – an early spring – we found it on 15 April, but by then that single inflorescence had already run to seed. It is a measure of the lateness of this year's season that we finally discovered two plants struggling into flower on the penultimate day of April, so blooming must have been delayed by about a month compared with last year.Luck plays a large part in finding it, but we've searched this same place every spring and have usually located a plant or two. Last year – an early spring – we found it on 15 April, but by then that single inflorescence had already run to seed. It is a measure of the lateness of this year's season that we finally discovered two plants struggling into flower on the penultimate day of April, so blooming must have been delayed by about a month compared with last year.
Part of the charm of these tenacious little survivors is that they have endured for four decades in such an inhospitable spot, inundated by the river Wear's floods in winter and annually buried under sandy silt. By now they will be almost impossible to find, hidden in the shade of expanding leaves of the surrounding sweet cicely, ground elder and ramsons.Part of the charm of these tenacious little survivors is that they have endured for four decades in such an inhospitable spot, inundated by the river Wear's floods in winter and annually buried under sandy silt. By now they will be almost impossible to find, hidden in the shade of expanding leaves of the surrounding sweet cicely, ground elder and ramsons.
In a month they will have withered back to underground bulbs for another year. But for a moment their fugitive beauty brought particular pleasure with the knowledge that, for another year at least, all was well in this particular corner of our local patch after the longest winter we can recall.In a month they will have withered back to underground bulbs for another year. But for a moment their fugitive beauty brought particular pleasure with the knowledge that, for another year at least, all was well in this particular corner of our local patch after the longest winter we can recall.
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