Gagea spathacea

Gagea spathacea, the Belgian gagea, is a European species of small bulbous perennial plants lily family. It is distinguished from other members of its genus by its large leaves and the lack of any surface ornamentation of its flower stalks and its leaves. Gagea spathacea is a bulbous perennial plant, usually 15 to 20 cm, up to 25 cm high. The two bulbs are inequal, ovoid, 10 to 18 mm long, 6 to 10 mm wide, and they are wrapped in a coriaceus bright-brown common tunic. Up to 54 small lateral bulbils are present outside the tunic. From the bulbs arise a stem and two basal leaves. The stem is erect, solitary, unbranched and glabrous. The basal leaves are usually longer than inflorescence or rarely equal. They are fistular, glabrous, 15 to 20, up to 28 cm long, 1 to 1.5 mm wide. One cauline leaf, oblong-lanceolate, is cucullate and glabrous. There are two glabrous bracts. The lower one is spathulate, 40 to 80 mm long, 4 to 6 mm wide, with 8 to 13 veins. It is slightly longer than the inflorescence or almost equal. The upper bract is linear-lanceolate, with 3 to 5 veins. It is 15 to 25 mm long, 1 to 2 mm wide, 3 to 17 mm above the lower bract. The inflorescence, flowered in April–May, is an umbel composed of 1-5 flowers. Pedicels are 30 to 45 mm long, glabrous. Bracteoles, located at the base of the pedicels or slightly above, are linear, glabrous and 2 to 15 mm long. The perianth of 6 free segments 10 to 13 mm long, is linear-lanceolate, obtuse, yellow inside and greenish-yellow outside. The 6 stamens are inserted at the base of the perianth. Anthers are basifixed. Fruits are loculicidal subglobose capsules. In the vegetative state, Gagea spathacea is distinguished by its fistular leaves from Gagea lutea or Hyacinthoides non-scripta, both of them having flat leaves above and a projecting median vein below. Gagea minima differs from Gagea spathacea by its unique, basal non-fistular leaf, and by its spathe-shape. Among the subdivision of the genus Gagea into at least 14 sectional units, the section Spathaceae Levichev comprises a sole species, G. spathacea. The English vernacular name is the Belgian Gagea. Friedrich Gottlob Hayne first described this species in 1797, and named it Ornithogalum spathaceum. The plant that allowed this first description came from a hardwood, named 'Hindschenfelder', located at one mile of Hamburg. The lectotype is hosted at Swedish Museum of Natural History.