Dodecatheon pulchellum

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Dodecatheon pulchellum

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Ericales
Family:	Primulaceae
Genus:	Dodecatheon
Species:	D. pulchellum

Binomial name

Dodecatheon pulchellum
(Raf.) Merr.

Dodecatheon pulchellum, commonly known as Pretty shooting star, Few-flowered shooting star, Dark throat shooting star and Prairie shooting star, is a perennial herb with single, leafless flower stems, growing from very short erect root stocks with no bulblets. It grows to a height of 5 to 40 centimeters.

Its leaves are basal, 2-15 cm long, blades oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate, mostly entire to somewhat small-toothed, narrowed gradually to winged stalks nearly as long.

Each plant has between 1 and 25 flowers clustered at the stem top. The Calyx is usually purple-flecked, and the five lobes are 3 to 5 millimeters long. The corolla is 10 to 20 millimeters long, the 5 lobes swept backwards, purplish-lavender, seldom white, the short tube yellowish, usually with a purplish wavy line at the base. The filaments are joined into a yellowish tube 1.5-3 mm long, which is smooth or only slightly wrinkled. The 5 anthers are joined to a projecting point, usually yellowish to reddish-purple, 4-7 mm long. The stigma is slightly larger than the style. This plant flowers between April and August.

The fruits are capsules, many-seeded, ovoid-cylindric, hairless to glandular-hairy, membranous to firm-walled, 5-15 mm long, opening from the tip into sharp teeth.

Pretty shooting star was used medicinally by the Okanagan-Colville and Blackfoot Indians. An infusion of the roots was used as a wash for sore eyes. A cooled infusion of leaves was used for eye drops. An infusion of leaves was gargled, especially by children, for cankers.