SHOOTING STAR AMERICAN COWSLIP PRIDE OF OHIO

(Dodecatheon Meadia) Primrose family



Flowers - Purplish pink or yellowish white, the cone tipped with

yellow; few or numerous, hanging on slender, recurved pedicels in

an umbel at top of a simple scape 6 in. to 2 ft. high. Calyx

deeply 5-parted; corolla of 5 narrow lobes bent backward and

upward; the tube very short, thickened at throat, and marked with

dark reddish-purple dots; 5 stamens united into a protruding

cone; 1 pistil, protruding beyond them. Leaves: Oblong or

spatulate 3 to 12 in. long, narrowed into petioles, all from

fibrous roots. Fruit: A 5-valved capsule on erect pedicels.

Preferred Habitat - Prairies, open woods, moist cliffs. Flowering

Season - April-May.

Distribution - Pennsylvania southward and westward, and from

Texas to Manitoba.



Ages ago Theophrastus called an entirely different plant by this

same scientific name, derived from dodeka = twelve, and theos =

gods; and although our plant is native of a land unknown to the

ancients, the fanciful Linnaeus imagined he saw in the flowers of

its umbel a little congress of their divinities seated around a

miniature Olympus! Who has said science kills imagination? These

handsome, interesting flowers so familiar in the Middle West and

Southwest, especially, somewhat resemble the cyclamen in oddity

of form, indeed, these prairie wildflowers are not unknown in

florists' shops in Eastern cities.



Many flowers like the shooting star, cyclamen, and nightshade,

with protruding cones made up of united stamens, are so designed

that, as the bees must cling to them while sucking nectar, they

receive pollen jarred out from the end of the cone on their

undersides. The reflexed petals serve three purposes: First, in

making the flower more conspicuous; secondly, in facilitating

access to nectar and pollen; and, finally, in discouraging

crawling intruders. Where the short tube is thickened, the bee

finds her foothold while she forces her tongue between the anther

tips. The nectar is well concealed and quite deeply seated,

thanks to the rigid cone. Few bee workers are flying at the

shooting star's early blooming season. Undoubtedly the female

bumblebees, which, by striking the protruding stigma before they

jar out any pollen, cross-fertilize it, are the flower's

benefactors; but one frequently sees the little yellow puddle

butterfly clinging to the pretty blossoms.



Very different from the bright yellow cowslip of Europe is our

odd, misnamed blossom.