Bonneville Shooting Star, Desert Shooting Star, Slimpod Shooting Star
Dodecatheon conjugens
Synonyms: Dodecatheon conjugens ssp. conjugens, Dodecatheon conjugens ssp. leptophyllum, Dodecatheon conjugens var. conjugens, Dodecatheon conjugens ssp. viscidum, Dodecatheon conjugens var. conjugens, Dodecatheon conjugens var. viscidum
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Desert shooting stars blooming (at left and center) in vernally moist swales along the main east-west access road through the Bickleton Ridge Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area..........April 11, 2017. The photo at right shows desert shooting stars blooming atop Bickleton Ridge on May 7, 2017.
Characteristics:
Desert shooting star is an attractive perennial wildflower with
a basal rosette of leaves and erect stem from 5-20 cm tall. The leaves are lanceolate
to oblanceolate, spatulate, or obovate, 3-20 cm long, usually several times
longer than wide, with entire margins and a smooth to lightly pubescent surface.
The 1-10 flowers have floral parts in fives, with the stigma
not enlarged and the filaments are free, yellowish or purple, and usually not
over 1-1.5 mm long. The anther connectives are strongly transversely wrinkled
and from deep red to purple. The anthers are from 6-8 mm long. The tube at the
base of the petals is yellowish with a wrinkled red ring. The corollas are 1-3
cm long. The reflexed petals are purplish.
Key identifying Characteristics:
1. Stem and leaves nonglandular. The leaves are oval-shaped and fairly fleshy, being stiffer than those of most of the other shooting stars.
2. Filaments only 1-1.5 mm long, giving the stamens the appearance
of being very short.
3. The filaments are not yellow.
Habitat:
Desert shooting star is a wildflower of seasonally moist open
grasslands or sagebrush in the plains, foothills and montane zones of the west.
Range:
Desert shooting star may be found from the east slopes of the
Cascade Mts. east to Alberta and Wyoming, north to British Columbia, and south
to northern California.
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Additional close-ups of the flowers and leaves of desert
shooting star as seen from a spur road at about 5500' off the Pine Creek Road (FS Rd 5401-811), Malheur National Forest..........June 3, 2011.
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Desert shooting stars in bloom along the Canyon Mountain Trail, Strawberry Mountain Wilderness.........May 29, 2014.
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Desert shooting stars in bloom on grassy slopes above the end of the Hardstone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.....March 26, 2021.
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Desert shooting star as seen from vernally moist roadside swales along Forest Service Road #35 about one-half mile downhill from the junction with FS Road #3521, Wenatchee National Forest........July 6, 2012.
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Desert shooting star blooming (left) in vernally moist meadows along Road 35 about one-half mile downhill from the junction with Road 3517 on Table Mountain, Wenatchee National Forest........June 4, 2013. The photo at right shows desert shooting star blooming atop Lookout Mt., Ochoco National Forest..........May 29, 2016.
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Desert shooting star blooming in grasslands near the end of the Hard Stone Trail, west bank of the John Day River, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.........March 19, 2017.
Desert shooting stars blooming in a vernally moist swale at the East Simcoe Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area.......April 20, 2018.
Desert shooting star from along Road #4670 in meadows at Billy Meadows Guard Station in the northern Wallowa-Whitman N.F.........June 26, 2008.
Dodecatheon conjugens from near
Lions Rock, Wenatchee N.F.......June, 1978.
Paul Slichter