Dodecatheon poeticum
Dodecatheon jeffreyi
narcissus shooting star, poet's shooting star
Jeffrey's shooting star, Sierra shootingstar, tall mountain shooting star
not obvious at anthesis;
roots white;
bulblets usually present.
not obvious at anthesis or usually horizontal, relatively short and thick or elongate and slender;
roots usually white;
bulblets absent.
(3–)5–16(–20) × 0.5–2.5(–3) cm;
petiole usually winged;
blade oblanceolate to spatulate, base usually decurrent onto stem, gradually tapering to petiole, margins usually entire, sometimes denticulate to slightly toothed, surfaces glandular-pubescent.
(2.5–)7–40(–53) × (0.5–)1–6(–7.5) cm;
petiole winged;
blade narrowly oblanceolate or oblanceolate to spatulate, base decurrent onto stem, usually gradually tapering to petiole, margins entire or crenate to serrulate, surfaces glabrous or glandular-pubescent.
2–10(–17)-flowered;
bracts narrowly to broadly lanceolate, 2–10 mm, glandular-pubescent.
3–20-flowered;
bracts lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, 3–17 mm, glandular-pubescent.
1–3.5 cm, glandular-pubescent.
2–7 cm, usually glandular-pubescent, rarely glabrous.
calyx greenish, often with pinkish purple to purple speckles, 5–9 mm, glabrous or slightly glandular at least along margins, tube 2–4(–5) mm, lobes 5, 3–5 mm;
corolla tube maroon and yellow with reddish, thin, wavy ring, lobes 5, magenta to lavender, (8–)10–15(–18) mm;
filaments connate, tube maroon, 1.5–3 × 2–3 mm;
anthers 4–7 mm;
pollen sacs maroon to black, connective deep purple to black, transversely rugose (sometimes seemingly smooth [when immature] or transversely wrinkled [when dried]);
stigma not enlarged compared to style.
calyx green, 7–12(–15) mm, usually glandular-pubescent, rarely glabrous, tube 2–4 mm, lobes 4–5, 4.5–8(–12) mm;
corolla tube cream or (rarely) yellow with reddish to purplish, thin to thick, often wavy ring, ring rarely absent, lobes 4–5, magenta to lavender or light yellow to whitish, 10–25(–27) mm;
filaments distinct or partially connate, dark maroon to black, usually 1–1.5 mm;
anthers 6.5–11 mm, (apex truncate to obtuse);
pollen sacs yellow or maroon, connective purplish, transversely rugose;
stigma enlarged, diam. no more than 2 times style.
tan, often faintly reddish apically, valvate, short-ovoid, 6–9 × 4–7 mm, glandular-pubescent;
walls usually thick and firm.
yellowish tan to reddish brown, operculate or sometimes valvate, sometimes both on same plant, ovoid, 7–11(–15) × 4.5–7(–10) mm, glabrous or teeth sometimes sparsely glandular-puberulent;
walls thin, pliable.
without membrane along edges.
with thin membrane along edges.
= 44, 88.
= 42, 44, 66, 86.
Dodecatheon poeticum
Dodecatheon jeffreyi
Dodecatheon poeticum grows mainly in the Columbia River gorge and on the eastern edge of the Cascade Range in Washington, and in Oregon. Nearby one can find D. conjugens var. conjugens and D. pulchellum var. cusickii, features of which (the rugose connective of the former, the glandular condition of the latter) are combined in D. poeticum. The distinct filaments of var. conjugens readily distinguish that taxon from D. poeticum; distinction between D. poeticum and D. pulchellum var. cusickii is difficult. The former has maroon pollen sacs; var. cusickii has yellow ones. Plants with all of the features of D. poeticum rarely have the smooth connective typical of D. pulchellum. H. J. Thompson (1953) suggested that D. poeticum (a tetraploid) might be the product of an allopolyploid involving var. cusickii and D. hendersonii (both diploids).
The leaves of Dodecatheon poeticum are occasionally slightly toothed and relatively broad (e.g., K. L. Chambers 2080, OSC) and resemble the leaves of D. dentatum, a species that flowers in the Gorge typically after D. poeticum. Rootstocks with bulblets are rarely seen on herbarium specimens.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Dodecatheon jeffreyi is found in montane places in the Sierra Nevada of California and western Nevada and on the northern coastal ranges and Siskiyou Mountains of northern California and southwestern Oregon. It occurs in the Cascade Ranges of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia northward to the Kenai Peninsula region of south-central Alaska, often near the coast and especially on the off-shore islands. It is also widely scattered in the mountains of northeastern Oregon, central and northern Idaho, and western Montana, with isolated stations on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. A single collection (J. Major 2927, GTNP) from Moose Basin, Grand Teton National Park, is the only record from Wyoming.
Dodecatheon jeffreyi is usually readily recognized; in portions of California, the delimitation of it from both D. alpinum and D. redolens can be somewhat arbitrary. Whether this is a breakdown of species boundaries due to hybridization or a shift in their respective morphologies due to overlapping ecological settings is uncertain. In some instances, intermediate plants seem to occur in areas where two of the species occur in proximity. In general, the corolla tube of D. jeffreyi is white except near the ring, where it is yellow. In D. redolens, the entire corolla tube is yellow.
This species is known universally as Dodecatheon jeffreyi, although it was named a year earlier as D. jeffreyanum K. Koch. To avoid the introduction of a name that has never been used for this widespread and sometimes cultivated plant, D. jeffreyanum has been proposed for rejection (J. F. Veldkamp et al. 2008).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
