Dodecatheon

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

Dodecatheon
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 Primrose family Primulaceae. The species have basal clumps of leaves and nodding flowers that are produced at the top of tall stems that rise from where the leaves join the crown. They are commonly called Shooting Stars because of the flower shape. The genus is largely confined to North America, and part of northeastern Siberia. Common names also include, American Cowslip, Mosquito Bills, Mad Violets,^[1] 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" in Henry M. Jackson Wilderness

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.^[2]

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 14 species:

western North America
Dodecatheon alpinum California Dodecatheon clevelandii California Dodecatheon conjugans Wyoming to Oregon Dodecatheon cruciatum Dodecatheon cusickii Dodecatheon dentatum Washington to Idaho Dodecatheon frigidum Alaska, northeast Siberia Dodecatheon hendersonii	Dodecatheon integrifolium British Columbia Dodecatheon jeffreyi California Dodecatheon pauciflorum Saline Shooting Star Dodecatheon poeticum Washington, Oregon Dodecatheon pulchellum western North America, northwest Mexico; naturalized in eastern US Dodecatheon redolens southwestern United States
eastern North America Dodecatheon meadia

References

1. ^ Frederic G. Cassidy, Chief Editor; Joan Houston Hall, Associate Editor (1996). Dictionary of American regional English. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 470. ISBN 0674205197. http://books.google.com/?id=eEB0YFR2EowC&pg=PA470&dq=Dodecatheon+are+called+shooting+stars. 
2. ^ James L. Reveal. "Revision of Dodecatheon (Primulaceae)". apparently prepared for Flora of North America. http://128.8.90.214/emeritus/reveal/pbio/fna/dodecatheon.html. 

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