Dodecatheon meadia, known as Shooting Star, is a perennial wildflower native to North America. It is found in the American South, as well as the Upper Midwest

Upper Midwest

The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the midwest. Although there are no uniformly agreed-upon boundaries, the region is most commonly used to refer to the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and...

, Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 and the Canadian province of Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

. It grows in woods and prairies and is tolerant to partial shade.

Description

The Dodecatheon meadia is within the genus of Dodecatheon

Dodecatheon

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...

, which contains other species of "shooting stars". It has white or pink petals which nod from an umbel

Umbel

An umbel is an inflorescence which consists of a number of short flower stalks which are equal in length and spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs....

, protruding from a scape

Scape (botany)

In botany, scapes are leafless flowering stems that rise from the ground. Scapes can have a single flower or many flowers, depending on the species....

8 to 20 inches tall. It flowers in the spring.

Cultivars

Dodecatheon meadia 'Goliath' is a cultivar that grows larger flowers on taller scapes. White flowering forms are also grown in garden and can occasionally be found in the wild.

External links

• http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/wildflowers/dodecatheon_meadia.html
• http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=DOME