The beautiful bright, shiny, golden, autumn flowering Sternbergia lutea grows, often in large clumps, in sunny fields, olive groves and orchards. They are often planted in gardens where it naturalises and may then escape again into the surrounding countryside. They are often referred to as daffodils, crocuses or lilies but they are different to all these. The flowers have 6 tepals*, 6 stamens and a single stigma. The flowers emerge before the bright green linear, blade-like leaves.

The scientific genus has been named after the Czech naturalist Count Kaspar von Sternberg, who founded the Bohemian Museum in Prague.