Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Dark-throated Shooting Star
Primula pauciflora
Primrose family (Primulaceae)

Shooting stars are a distinctive and colorful part of the region's flora. The plant blooms soon after the snows melt or in wet areas later in the season. A great deal of variation occurs within the . Dodecatheon means "12 gods," alluding to the arrangement of flowers suggesting an assembly of deities.


©2009 Walter Siegmund

Description

, 6-12" tall, with 1-25 distinctive pink or magenta flowers on long, leafless stem. Petals sweep backward from a yellow base to reveal yellow to purple tube and 5 join to form a projecting point. Long, elliptical and usually hairless leaves form a .

Field Marks

Down-pointing pink-magenta flowers with swept-back petals; of leaves.

© Al Schneider

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

basal -- at the base, situated or attached at the base.

The anther is a pad at the end of the stamen that holds the pollen.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

rosette -- usually a dense cluster of leaves at the base of a plant.