Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Primulales

Family: Primulaceae -- primrose

Common Name: darkthroat shooting star

Species Code: DOPU

Origin: Native to vernally moist, open prairies and meadows to open forests of western North America from Alaska to California and east to New Mexico and Manitoba.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial, erect, glabrous to glandular-pubescent throughout, 10-20 cm tall; roots fleshy, lacking bulblets.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: medium lifespan

Habitat Type: prairie, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: all basal, petiolate with the blade tapering down along the petiole; blades oblanceolate to ovate, margins usually entire.

Mature height: 4-8 inches

Flowers: nodding; flower parts in 5’s; calyx lobes 3-5 mm, reflexed, becoming erect in fruit; corolla tube yellow with a purple ring, lobes reflexed, 9-14 mm long, lavender to magenta.

Flower color: pink

Bloom: April, May

Bloom starts on: mid April

Bloom ends on: late May

Fruit: capsule, ovoid-cylindric, glabrous to glandular-hairy, 5-15 mm long; seeds brown, papillose, 0.3-0.7 mm long.

Characteristics:
D. pauciflorum is an alternate name and may have priority.
D. pauciflorum in Davis 1953 and in Daubenmire 1970.
Reproduces sexually by seeds.
2n=44, 88 (Baldwin et al 2004).
Insect pollinated.
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a capsule.
Dodecatheon is a polyploid group and the species sometime grade into one another (Baldwin et al 2004).
There is conflicting information on edibility, some sources say it is poisonous, others that the roots and leaves are edible.
D. pauciflorum is a minor component of the diet of Rocky Mountain elk in spring (Kufeld 1973).

Sun requirement: prefers full sun but tolerates partial light shade

Soil moisture: mesic

Precipitation: 12-30 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: fall

Stratification: cold moist plus cool incubation

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: 2+ years

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: moderate

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: small

Seed harvest date: mid June

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: forb upland native

Propagation:
1 protocol in the Native Plant Network
Pullman WA Plant Materials Center

Other propagation information:
Can be propagated from seed but plants dug from the wild usually die (Parish et al 1996).
Reproduces sexually by seeds.

Notes: Dodecatheon pulchellum takes a while to grow and it needs space where it isn’t overtopped by other plants early in the season, but it is beautiful when in flower. Grows from seeds planted outside in fall. Container grown plants should be set out in the fall so they can begin growing while it is still too muddy to work in the garden in early spring. Blooms in May and goes dormant by mid June. Common names includes some variation of shooting star (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 8/15/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Daubenmire, R.F. 1970. Steppe Vegetation of Washington. Washington State Univ. Coop. Ext. Service EB 1446. Pullman, WA.

Davis, Ray J. 1952. Flora of Idaho. Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa. 827 pp.

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

Parish, Roberta, Ray Coupe, and Dennis Lloyd. 1996. Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing. Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 15 August 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium