This "Star-of-Bethlehem" from southern Europe has become widely naturalized across eastern North America since early settlement. In 1914 Gm noted: "Common in old lawns about dwellings...It seems to have been much planted in former times as an ornamental and still clings to old premises when not wanted." The species remains locally concentrated around old home sites but it has also spread into submesic woods, especially near residential or agricultural land. Its success may be partly related to the toxic cardiac glycosides in its bulbs, (similar those in Convallaria and Digitalis (Steckel & McClure 2015). Cattle and deer appear to avoid grazing on it. Dispersal of bulbs may occur locally more often than seeds (Y). Like several other genera in Scilloideae, Ornithogalum contains a polyploid series based on 2n = 18, but the chromosome number of umbellatum in North America remains undocumented (FNA 26, Y). A segregare known as ssp. campestre Rouy or O. angustifolium Bor. in Europe may be expected here (Van Raamsdonk & Heringa 1987, Moret 1992, Hermann 2002, BSBI 2024). It is reportedly triploid (2n = 27), whereas typical umbellatum is pentaploid or hexaploid (2n = 45 or 54). O. angustifolium tends to have fewer bulbils in bulb axils, narrower leaves and smaller flowers on largely erect (versus reflexed) pedicels. Without its distinctive white flowers (that have green stripes on backs of tepals), Ornithogalum in North America can usually be identified from the white stripes along the upper side of its glossy green leaves. Ornithogalum is sometimes misidentified as Nothoscordum or vice versa. The genus Ornithogalum differs as follows (FNA 26): seeds globose to ovoid (versus angled); stamens distinct (versus adnate to tepal bases), dimorphic, the filaments simple or 3-dentate (versus all subulate, entire); inflorescence racemose or (as in umbellatum) corymbose (versus umbellate);