Astrantia – a garden firework of pretty pink stars…

The Astrantia flowerhead is like an exploding firework of tiny stars...

This Astrantia surprises me every year, as when I see the leaves in its pot I think what’s that? Then I remember it’s something beginning with A and eventually I get the name before it starts to flower, around May or June.

An Astrantia coming into flower at the beginning of June 2011

Wikipedia doesn’t have much to say about it, so it’s clearly not a common garden plant – but it does deserve more fame.

Astrantia flower head developing

Astrantia as a genus is native to Central, Eastern and Southern Europe and the Caucasus and it is also known as great masterwort.

The name Astrantia comes from the Greek word for star – and when you look closely at the flower you can see why, as it looks like an explosion of little stars.

A close-up of the Astrantia flower head after rain

In all there are eight or nine species of Astrantia, which have aromatic roots, palmate leaves, and decorative flowers.

The palmate leaves of my Astrantia in its pot

The usual garden variety of Astrantia is A. major, which is white, but I think my pink one is a “rubra” variety of this. I bought it from Aberglasney Gardens in June 2006 and it has survived winters in its plastic pot ever since. It would look great in the herbaceous border – if I had one – although it does seem to like its current shady position.

This is a superb picture of the normal white version of Astrantia major, by Joan Simon - click on the picture to go to the source

Astrantias belong to the bigger family of Apiaceae, but I prefer the old name for the family, Umbelliferae. This reminds me they all grow in an umbel shape – the family includes angelica, anise, carrot, celery, chervil, cicely, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, hemlock, lovage, Queen Anne’s Lace, parsley and parsnip.

Astrantia grows in umbels as it is a distant relative of parsley and hemlock

A typical umbel - cow parsley in my garden in April 2011

The Astrantia flower starting to wilt

Raindrops on the wilting stamens of an Astrantia flower

See more of my flower pictures here…

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