If you go down to the woods and lanes around Great Chalfield you
may (if you know what you’re looking for because it’s not a
particularly showy plant) find an upright slender stem (or
‘spike’) rising out of the docks, grasses, and Red Campions etc.
Reaching almost a metre high, a few weeks ago these almost
translucent, pale green slender columns supported a pyramid of
unwrapped buds which at first glance look like asparagus heads.
Spiked Star of Bethlehem, 04 June 2012 Around mid June though
this hitherto unassuming plant transforms into a flower of
subtle beauty as the pale, six-petalled flowers of the Spiked
Star-of-Bethlehem Ornithogalum pyrenaicum open and are revealed.
Spiked Star of Bethlehem, 18 June 2012 Opinion is divided
whether the Spiked Star-of Bethlehem, or Bath asparagus as it’s
more commonly known in these parts, is native to Britain or was
brought here by the Romans as an easily grown foodplant.
Ornithogalum is not related to the asparagus we all know and
love (it’s actually a relative of the