Dodecatheon

This article is about the genus of plants. For the ancient Greek gods, see Twelve Olympians.

Dodecatheon
Dodecatheon pulchellum (Fidalgo Island, Washington)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Ericales
Family:	Primulaceae
Genus:	Dodecatheon L.
Species
See text.

Dodecatheon is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. The species have basal clumps of leaves and nodding flowers that are produced at the top of tall stems rising from where the leaves join the crown. The genus is largely confined to North America and part of northeastern Siberia. Common names include shooting star, American cowslip, mosquito bills, mad violets, and sailor caps. A few species are grown in gardens for their showy and unique flower display.

The stamens are thrust out with the sepals bent back. The flowers are pollinated by bees, which grab hold of the petals, and gather pollen by vibrating the flowers by buzzing their wings (buzz pollination). The vibration releases pollen from the anthers.

Classification

Dodecatheon jeffreyi (Henry M. Jackson Wilderness, Washington)

Dodecatheon is related to the genus Primula (primroses and related plants); in fact, Primula without Dodecatheon is paraphyletic. One way of avoiding this is to move the Dodecatheon species into Primula. If this is done, the former genus Dodecatheon becomes a monophyletic section, Primula subg. Auriculastrum sect. Dodecatheon (L.) A.R.Mast & Reveal.

Cultivation

Dodecatheon needs good drainage and often dry soils in summer and winter when plants are dormant, in the spring plants like moist soils for best growth. Plants grown in dry soils tend to be smaller and lower growing. Since plants typically go summer dormant, seed raised plants need three or more years of growth before they are large enough to bloom. For some Dodecatheon, if given frequent light fertilization and kept moist, dormancy can be delayed resulting in larger plants after germination and the interval between germination and flowering decreased by a year or two. Another technique to shorten the interval between seed germination and flowering is to place the plants in a cooler after dormancy has set in, in late spring, and after a number of weeks move the plants to a shadehouse in midsummer where new growth will start. The flowers need buzz pollination to produce seeds.

Dodecatheon can be propagated by division in winter.

Species

There are 17 species:

name	common name	location
Dodecatheon alpinum	alpine shootingstar	California
Dodecatheon amethystinum	Jewelled shootingstar	Upper Midwest US, Pennsylvania
Dodecatheon austrofrigidum	Frigid shootingstar	Coast ranges of Oregon and Washington
Dodecatheon clevelandii	padre's shootingstar	California
Dodecatheon conjugens	Bonneville shootingstar	Wyoming to Oregon
Dodecatheon dentatum	White shootingstar	Washington to Idaho
Dodecatheon frenchii	French's Shootingstar	Southeastern US
Dodecatheon frigidum	Frigid Shootingstar	Alaska, NW Canada, Russia
Dodecatheon ellisiae	Ellis' Shootingstar	Arizona, New Mexico, W Mexico
Dodecatheon hendersonii	broad-leaved shootingstar	California to Idaho
Dodecatheon jeffreyi	Sierra shootingstar	California
Dodecatheon meadia	Mead's shootingstar	Eastern US
Dodecatheon poeticum	Poet's shootingstar	Washington, Oregon
Dodecatheon pulchellum	pretty shootingstar	western North America, northwest Mexico
Dodecatheon redolens	scented shootingstar	California, Nevada and Utah
Dodecatheon subalpinum	Sierran shootingstar	California
Dodecatheon utahense	Wasatch shootingstar	Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

External links

• Treatment from the Jepson Manual
• ITIS 23943
• Cullina, W., and Cullina, B. (2000). The New England Wild Flower Society Guide to Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the United States and Canada. Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 0-395-96609-4.
• Oregon Flora Project