Dodecatheon pulchellum |
Dodecatheon poeticum |
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darkthroat shooting star, few-flower shootingstar |
narcissus shooting star, poet's shooting star |
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Habit | Plants (2–)10–45(–60) cm; scape usually glabrous, sometimes glandular-pubescent or -puberulent. | Plants 10–45 cm; scape glandular-pubescent. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Caudices | not obvious at anthesis; roots white; bulblets absent. |
not obvious at anthesis; roots white; bulblets usually present. |
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Leaves | (2–)4–25(–48) × 0.3–6(–8.5) cm; petiole ± winged, sometimes wingless near base; blade oblanceolate to spatulate or ovate to nearly oval, base decurrent onto stem, usually gradually tapering to petiole, margins usually entire, rarely slightly toothed, sometimes undulate, surfaces glabrous or glandular-pubescent. |
(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. |
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Inflorescences | 2–15(–22)-flowered; bracts lanceolate, 2–15 mm, glabrous or glandular-pubescent or -puberulent. |
2–10(–17)-flowered; bracts narrowly to broadly lanceolate, 2–10 mm, glandular-pubescent. |
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Pedicels | (0.7–)1–5(–7) cm, glabrous or glandular-pubescent or -puberulent. |
1–3.5 cm, glandular-pubescent. |
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Flowers | calyx green, usually purple-flecked, 4–8 mm, glabrous or glandular-pubescent or -puberulent, tube 1.5–4 mm, lobes 5, 1–6 mm; corolla tube maroon or yellow (fading to white) with reddish to magenta, thin, wavy ring, ring rarely absent, lobes 5, usually magenta to lavender, rarely white, (5–)7–20 mm; filaments connate, tube yellow or maroon to dark purple or black, 0.7–3.6 × 1–3 mm; anthers 3–8.5 mm; pollen sacs dark maroon to black (at least apically) or yellow (at least apically), usually with some pink, reddish, or maroon speckles or lines dorsally, connective maroon to black or yellow, smooth or longitudinally wrinkled; stigma not enlarged compared to style. |
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. |
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Capsules | tan to light brown, often reddish brown apically, sometimes speckled with red or maroon, valvate, cylindric-ovoid, 5–14(–20) × 3–5(–7) mm, glabrous or glandular-pubescent; walls thin, pliable. |
tan, often faintly reddish apically, valvate, short-ovoid, 6–9 × 4–7 mm, glandular-pubescent; walls usually thick and firm. |
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Seeds | without membrane along edges. |
without membrane along edges. |
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2n | = 44, 88. |
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Dodecatheon pulchellum |
Dodecatheon poeticum |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Moist flats, slopes, and cliff faces in grassland communities and in oak and conifer woodlands | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 50-900 m (200-3000 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; NT; SK; YT; nw Mexico
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OR; WA
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Discussion | Varieties 7 (7 in the flora). The variation within Dodecatheon pulchellum is substantial and, for the most part, each of the entities recognized here seems distinct although nearly all break down in one or more features; most seem to have intergraded with other entities in the past. Variety pulchellum is the most widespread and remains, even as treated here, quite variable. The depauperate, often uniflorous, high-elevation form, var. watsonii, is included in var. pulchellum; there is no difference except in overall size even on the East Humboldt and Ruby mountains of northeastern Nevada, the type location of var. watsonii. Widely disjunct populations assigned to var. monanthum remain problematic. The plants of northwestern California and southwestern Oregon differ only slightly from those found elsewhere in Oregon, including the Blue Mountains, where the type of var. monanthum was obtained. The southern Utah expression, while similar morphologically, displays a biogeographic pattern that is unique. A better understanding of the variation between the western and eastern phases of var. monanthum is needed. The coastal var. macrocarpum has consistent morphological differences and a higher ploidy level (2n = 88, 132) compared with the more inland var. pulchellum (2n = 44). Whether or not the ploidy level difference is consistent remains to be shown. The arid forms of Dodecatheon pulchellum exhibit remarkable morphological differences that require recognition (J. L. Reveal 2005). Hanging garden plants in Utah are recognized as var. zionense, following N. H. Holmgren (2005). Some populations assigned to this variety may ultimately prove to be merely large-leaved plants of either var. pulchellum or the Utah phase of var. monanthum. Zion shootingstar may owe both its large leaves and its glandular-puberulent pedicels and calyces to hybridization with D. redolens sometime in its evolutionary past, even though the latter taxon is no longer close geographically. Variety shoshonense, usually growing in moist, alkaline meadows, is found mainly in the northern Mojave Desert and the Intermountain West. The color pattern associated with the stamens differs from most other varieties of the species, suggesting a fundamental change associated with pollination and likely a closer relationship to var. cusickii (which also has yellow pollen sacs) than to var. pulchellum. This taxon inadvertently was named Dodecatheon puberulum (Nuttall) Nuttall three years before the establishment of Exinia pulchella. To avoid nomenclatural disruptions, the basionym D. meadia var. puberulum Nuttall has been proposed for rejection (J. L. Reveal and K. N. Gandhi 2008). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 8, p. 279. | FNA vol. 8, p. 284. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Primulaceae > Dodecatheon | Primulaceae > Dodecatheon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Exinia pulchella | Primula poetica | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Rafinesque) Merrill: J. Arnold Arbor. 29: 212. (1948) | L. F. Henderson: Rhodora 32: 27. 1930 , | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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