Common name:
Alpine shooting star
Family:
Scientific name:
Dodecatheon alpinum
Synonym:
Primula Tetrandra
Main flower color:
Range:
Oregon and California, east to Utah and Arizona
Height:
Up to one foot
Habitat:
Bogs, moist meadows and beside streams, in high-elevation areas, up to 11,500 feet
Leaves:
4 inches long, in a cluster at the base of the flower stalk
Season:
June to July
Dodecatheon alpinum is an attractive plant with a cluster of ovate leaves growing close to the ground, producing several green-red stalks that have a small umbel of flowers at the top, containing 1 to 9 heads, borne on brownish pedicels that, like the reddish green calyces, may be hairless or sparsely glandular hairy. Each flower points downwards, and consists of four pink or lavender sepals angled back upwards, white-yellow at the base, from which projects a fused cluster of purplish black anthers, and a single, thin stigma at the tip.
The basal leaves are hairless, with smooth edges. The plant is found in wet areas of the Western mountains, particularly the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades.
The basal leaves are hairless, with smooth edges. The plant is found in wet areas of the Western mountains, particularly the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades.
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