Native American plants that fall into the Eurybia genus are well-known for having star shaped flowers. The flowers come in various colors, but they are most often, white, yellow, or red. So, it’s common for many people to call them Eurabia stars or starry Eurabia.
Generally speaking, star shaped flowers are bilaterally symmetrical. They can make a fun addition to your garden as they are fun and exotic-looking. However, you should note that if you want to grow these flowers at home, it can be tricky as they require slightly more warmth than other flowers during the winter months.
Interestingly enough, a lot of star shaped flowers have a very sweet smell that is stronger during the evening hours. Some of them grow very well planted in shade, and some of them adore full sun. The following list will help you find the best star shaped flowers for your needs and space. So, let’s dive in.
1. Abyssinian Sword-Lily
The first star shaped flower on the list goes by many different names, including the Peacock Orchid, Peacock Flower, and Fragrant Gladiolus. They are native to East Africa, and they love medium moist soil that drains very well with a full sun location. It will bloom during the late summer months or early fall well after other plants have died back for the year. This is a perennial, however, if you do want to leave the bulb in the ground for winter and you live in a colder area, this plant won’t survive. So, you should collect the bulbs before the first frost, store them over the winter, and plant them in spring.
The plant’s sword-shaped and medium-green leaves can stretch between two and three feet long at full maturity, and they produce white, star-shaped, fragrant flowers that have a deep purple stain in the middle. You can plant the Abyssinian Sword-Lily in groups to add a fresh look to your garden, and they work perfectly as cut flowers. They’ll grow if you plant them in containers and set them near your seating area or patio.
Abyssinian Sword-Lily by beautifulcataya / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
2. Bellflower
Bellflowers are star shaped flowers that are perennial, tall specimens that grow well in a range of climates. They come in shades of white, pink, purple, blue, and bi-colors. Some can have spots or specks on the petals. It grows best planted in zones four to eight, but they’ll come back year after year if you grow them in zones 9 to 11. It prefers to be in a place where it gets full sun exposure each day, but it can tolerate partial shade or light shade as long as it gets a lot of water during the active growing season.
3. Bromeliad
Bromeliads have long-lasting, stunning blooms that aren’t technically flowers. Instead, they’re actually modified leaves that go by the name of bracts. They grow best in tropical, humid areas, and they’re a great plant to have in the bathroom. Generally speaking, this is an easy-care houseplant that thrives in indirect light, but you want to keep them out of direct light as it can scorch the leaves. You can mist the leaves with distilled water during the dry, hot weather.
4. Byzantine Squill
Byzantine Squill is a pretty star shaped flower that falls into the Hyacinthaceae family. It’s very similar to the striped squill plant, but the flower comes in a shade of stunning china-blue. It can get between four to eight inches high at full maturity, and it loves to be in sunny spots in your garden. It’ll bloom early during the spring, and it’ll multiply and bloom year after year if the growing conditions are correct.
Byzantine Squill by Rawpixel Ltd / CC BY 2.0
5. Chincherinchee
Also called the Star-of-Bethlehem or the Wonder-Flower, this star shaped flower produces white blooms. It’s native to South Africa, and it’ll bloom later in the summer months between June and September. During the winter months, this plant goes dormant. This is a bulb plant that can reach between 8 and 11 inches high at full maturity. It produces roughly seven fleshy leaves and flowers that are between 5 and 11 inches high. Once this plant flowers, the leaves will die back.
The flowers themselves are very fragrant and decorative, and they tend to bloom in a unique circle shape on top of a stem with no leaves. Chincherinchee isn’t a plant that can stand the cold weather, so you want to protect it from the frost. When you plant this star shaped flower, make sure it’s in a sunny location as it loves the sun and doesn’t require a lot of water to thrive. You can get by with one or two glasses of water every week or two, and you want to check the soil before you water it again to be sure that it’s 100% dried out. Don’t water this plant during the dormant phase, and it works well in containers and borders. It also has a longer vase life at two weeks.
Chincherinchee by Daniela / CC BY-SA 2.0
6. Dahlia
Dahlias are show-stopping star shaped flowers that bloom from late summer until well into the fall. They come in a host of sizes, colors, and shapes, including some pretty star-shaped ones. You can grow your dahlias from tubers or seeds, and they need a minimum of six hours of sunlight a day. You want to plant them in a space that is protected from stronger winds.
7. Egyptian Star Flower
The Egyptian Star Flower is a plant that is native to East Africa, and it falls into the Rubiaceae family. The common name you may hear it called is the Star Cluster. As this name suggests, the star shaped flowers grow in three-inch clusters in white, red, purple, or pink colors. This makes this plant very popular with pollinators, especially butterflies. The height of this plant at full maturity can vary from 24 to 36 inches tall, however it can easily reach up to four feet tall when you plant it in a frost-free zone.
If you manage to get the perfect growing conditions for this plant, it can blossom over and over through the whole season to the fall months. So, it’s worth it to create the best growing conditions possible. It needs a minimum of three hours of sunlight a day, but more sun means it’ll produce more flowers. This plant loves higher temperatures and humidity levels, so you should keep the soil consistently moist.
8. Formosana Toad Lily
The Formosana Toad Lily is native to Taiwan, and it’s a perennial that falls into the lily family. Even though the flower looks like an orchid, the name comes from the fact that it has sac-like bumps and spots like a toad. This star shaped flower comes with very glossy leaves and an erect stem that can reach up to 40 inches tall, and it forms small flowers on the top of the stem in a cluster.
The flowers are smaller, and they have a white color with purplish-red spots or blotches over them. This plant prefers to be in light shade conditions as full sun can scorch the leaves and deep shade will stunt the plant’s growth. This is a deer-resistant star shaped flower, but rabbits are attracted to newer growth. Some snails or slugs will eat the leaves, and some pests like aphids can attack it. They’re beautiful as cut flowers, or you can easily grow them along a path or border.
9. Golden Star
Golden Star is a star shaped perennial plant that is native to the eastern portion of the United States. Despite the fact that people consider it a perennial, it can easily stay green throughout the year in climates that have more mild winters. As the name suggests, it produces bright yellow, small, star shaped flowers that stand out against the dark green foliage. It can easily get between six to eight inches tall and bloom from spring until the fall months. This plant does perfectly in moist, shady spots in your garden, including in rock gardens, woodland gardens, and wildflower gardens. It can tolerate light foot traffic without any damage, so it’s great for border, edging, or groundcover use.
Golden Star by peganum / CC BY-SA 2.0
10. Grass Lily
The Grass Lily is another star shaped flower that goes very well in the garden. It produces lily-like, white star shaped flowers that will bloom from the late spring months until early fall. The flowers are quickly followed by brown fruits. The foliage on this plant is a very dark green hue, and it has linear, narrow, grass-like leaves. It can grow well in larger containers in a mixed garden. You’ll need well-drained soil, but it requires a consistent amount of moisture to thrive. If you grow this plant, it does have issues with spider mites, leaf spot, and mealy bugs.
11. Hoya
Hoya, also commonly called the wax plant, is an evergreen perennial that has small star shaped flower clusters. In the wild, you’ll find this plant growing on the surfaces of trees, and they get all of their nutrients and water from the rain and air. You can also grow this plant inside as a houseplant, and the most popular option for this use is Hoya carnosa. It has pink and white flowers, and it’ll require indirect but bright sunlight to thrive inside.
12. Impala Lily
Since the Impala Lily is evergreen, this means that they can bloom through the fall months. They come in orange, red, yellow, and peach tones, and there are also bi-colored varieties that will attract hummingbirds to your yard or garden. This plant prefers to be in shade or partial sun, and they require moist soil conditions. They grow best when you live in zones 9 to 11, but they can do well grown as houseplants during the colder winter months. It thrives in hotter climates, but it might not survive the first frost when you plant it outside. Make sure the last frost of the season has receded before you plant the bulbs in the spring.
13. Isotoma Axillaris
This plant is also known as the Blue Star or rock Isotome, and it’s part of the bellflower or Campanulacea family. From the name, you can tell that this plant produces blue star shaped flowers, and the foliage is mostly evergreen throughout the year until the first frost of the season hits. However, it’s now possible for you to find F1 Hybrids of this plant like Sophia, Avant-Garde, White Star, Starshine Blue, or Starlight Pink that can offer violet, white, or pink blooms too.
This is a smaller-sized plant, but it has a quick growth habit and it’s very easy to plant. It’s perfect as an ornamental plant in your landscape, and you can easily plant it along borders, pathways, in containers, or even in hanging baskets as a nice filler plant. You should grow it in partial shade to full sun, and it will take roughly four months for the plants to produce flowers. So, if you plan on growing it from seed, you want to start it indoors in February and transplant it outside after the last frost of the spring. It’s rabbit and deer-resistant too.
Isotoma Axillaris by yewchan / CC BY-SA 2.0
14. Japanese Toad Lily
This plant is also a perennial that is part of the lily family, and it’s native to the Philippines and Japan. In the natural habitat, you’ll find this plant growing in shady areas, and it likes to grow on the edges of forests or along stream banks or shady rock cliffs. It will bloom later in the summer months to early fall when all of the other flowers are done for the season. The flowers are star shaped, an inch wide, and pale purple to whtie with a dark purple center. Bees and various pollinators adore these star shaped flowers while deer avoid it. However, slugs and rabbits like to eat the fresh growth, so make sure you monitor it when you plant it in moist and shady spots in your yard.
15. Pentas
Pentas are another star shaped flower to add to the list, and they’re better known as Egyptian Stars. Pentas are great for helping attract pollinators to the yard, and it’ll bloom all summer long. In tropical, warm areas, this plant will grow as a perennial. However, in cooler climates, you can grow it as an annual. You can also plant them in containers and grow them inside if you have enough light available.
16. Pretty Face
Pretty Face is also called Yellow Brodiaea or Golden Brodiaea, and it’s a perennial that is native to Central and Northern California and the Southwestern portion of Oregon in the United States. The natural habitat is inland and coastal coniferous forests, and it produces two basal leaves that can get up to 6 inches wide and 19 inches long at full maturity. The stem can get up to 31 inches tall, and you’ll find a flower cluster perched at the top. The color of the flowers can vary from purple-tinged white to bright or pale yellow. This plant will start to bloom in May and go through July, and then it’ll go dormant for the rest of the year.
Pretty Face by Internet Archive Book Images / CC0 1.0
17. Spring Starflower
As the name suggests, this is a star shaped flower that blooms during the earlier spring months. It produces pretty grass-like foliage that is roughly three to four inches tall, and it produces several flower stems per plant that are roughly six inches tall. The flowers come in purple, blue, or white, and the plant prefers to be in full sun in a well-drained soil. The foliage and flowers come with a very mild onion or garlic scent, and they grow from bulbs. After late spring, they’ll go dormant until the next spring. It’s one of the easiest bulb plants to grow, and it grows in woodland gardens, rock gardens, and lawns.
18. Star Jasmine
Star Jasmine is a climbing plant that has white, small, star shaped flowers that are extremely fragrant. They bloom throughout the summer months, and the foliage is an evergreen vine that loves partial shade or full sun and well-drained but moist soil. This plant will grow much faster in a warm climate and slower in a cooler one, and it can spread between 16 and 26 feet in 5 to 10 years if you don’t control it. You can grow it in large or small gardens without an issue, and it can easily scale pergolas, walls, trellises, or fences, so you can grow it as a living fence or privacy screen to keep prying eyes out while surrounding yourself with greenery.
19. Star Magnolia
This is actually a shrub that produces white, star shaped flowers that are very fragrant. It’s native to Japan, and it’s a deciduous shrub that will start to bloom early in the spring months. It loves partial shade or full sun, and it should be in a well-drained, evenly-moist soil. Magnolia shrubs grow very slow, and it can take between 10 and 20 years to fully mature. When it does, it can reach between five and eight feet high and have an 8 to 13 foot spread. Even if you have a smaller yard, because this star shaped flower is so slow to grow, it won’t crowd your garden. Also, it’ll lend color to the space before the buds start to grow.
20. Star Tulip
Star Tulips are one tulip variety virtually everyone knows. They are native to the central portion of Europe and Eastern Asia. They’re available in virtually every pattern and color but blue, and they are very popular as spring flowers as tulips are one of the first pops of color to push up through the ground, even though the snow. They love moist soil and full sun, and they grow best when you plant them in areas where the winter is moist and cold and the summer months are warm and dry.
All tulips are perennials, but the hybrids tend to be annuals instead. So, this means that you have to replant them each year. Also, if the winter temperatures don’t get cold enough, the bulb won’t bloom as it requires 12 to 14 weeks where the temperatures hover below 50°F. It looks wonderful in virtually any garden, with other spring flowers, or at the base of a tree. They look lovely planted in clusters, and they work well as cut flowers.
21. Starfish Plant
Starfish plants are very large succulents that are native to South Africa and Tanzania. They produce bigger star shaped flowers that can be yellow or red, and they can easily get up to 10 inches across. The flowers do smell like rotting meat, so they’re not very popular to plant in the garden. The rotten smell does attract flies to help with the plant’s pollination process.
22. Striped Squill
Striped Squill is a star shaped flower that is native to Turkey, Caucasus, Lebanon, and northern Iran. It’s an annual bulb that will come back each year. This plant is also one of the earliest bulbs to show up in the late winter and early spring months. It looks wonderful mixed with other spring flowers, and it works in rock gardens, borders, under shrubs or trees, and in smaller gardens. It gets roughly six inches high at full maturity, and the star shaped flowers produce a very spicy scent with silvery-blue coloring with darker blue stripes down the middle of each petal. It can multiply very rapidly if you plant it in wet soil in light shade conditions.
23. Two-Leaf Squill (Alpine Squill)
Two-Leaf Squill is another early-blooming plant in the springtime, and it produces dual strap-shaped leaves that are semi-erect. It also has fragrant blue flowers, and it will grow between three and six inches tall. It’s a perfect addition to your woodland garden, rock garden, border, or under shrubs and trees. This plant blooms very early and goes dormant before the summer heat sets in, and it spreads using self-seeding and offsets. It grows best when you plant it in light shade or full sun with a moist but well-drained soil. It’s rodent, rabbit, pest, and deer-resistant too.
24. White Brodiaea
This star shaped flowered perennial is a part of the Themidaceae family, and you’ll find it growing wild in the Pacific Northwest. It will produce two or three strap-like leaves that can get up to 16 inches long, and the flower stems can get up to two feet long under optimal conditions. The star shaped flowers grow on the top of the stem in a cluster, and they’re usually white, but you can get them in a light purple color. It loves full sun and requires the soil to be moist, and it’s a popular addition to bee or butterfly gardens because pollinators adore it. You can put it in meadows or rock gardens too.
25. Woodruff
Woodruff falls into the Rubiaceae family, just like gardenias. You can find it growing in the woods in the wild, and it loves wet soil with shaded spaces. It has star shaped leaves during the spring months, and it produces very small, white star shaped flowers in April and May that are very fragrant. This is a very low-growing plant that you can spread easily, so you should take steps to contain it if you don’t want it to take over. It’s popular to use it as a herb or in potpourri because the foliage and the flowers have a hay-like scent when you dry them. A lot of people use it to repel moths.
26. Wood Stitchwort
Wood Stitchwort grows as a pretty wildflower in Northern Europe and in Britain. It’s part of the Caryophyllaceae family, and the plant can easily reach 24 inches high and have star shaped, white flowers that come with five very deeply bifold petals. The natural habitat for this plant is in deciduous forests and wet places, so you can easily plop this plant in a wet area in your yard, like next to a pond if it’s damp and shady enough.
27. Zephyr Lily
The final star shaped flower on the list is also called the Fairy Lily or Rain Lily, and it’s native to South America. This plant adores summer rains, and it needs a higher amount of water. It likes full sun to partial shade, and the flower can be pink or white. The whole plant can get up to a foot high, and it’s resistant to a host of pests because it has toxic alkaloids in the foliage and flower. While it repels pests, it does a good job of attracting pollinators like butterflies, bees, and birds. It grows in wetlands and along rivers, so it’s also a nice plant to put around the pond.
Bottom Line
These 27 star shaped flowers all bring something unique to your space, and you can use them to add pops of color, pretty foliage, and height or groundcover to your yard or garden. You can mix and match to get a wonderful show of colors from spring until late in the fall months.
