[Shootingstars: The Genus Dodecatheon East of the Cascade Mts. of Oregon and Washington]

Narcissus Shooting Star, Poet's Shootingstar, Poet's Shooting Star

Dodecatheon poeticum

Synonym: Primula poetica

The photo at left shows a close-up of the flower of poet's shooting star as seen along a small stream at the trailhead to Canyon Creek in the Klickitat State Wildlife Area of south-central Washington..........May 8, 2009. Note the numerous tiny glands covering the stem and back of the calyx. The photo at right shows poet's shooting star blooming along a vernal creek in Brooks Memorial State Park, Klickitat County, WA......May 4, 2021.

Photo at right of poet's shooting star, at Memaloose Overlook, east of Mosier, OR.....April 5, 1997.

Characteristics:

Poet's shooting star is an attractive perennial with a basal rosette of leaves and a flower stem from 15-30 cm high. The oblanceolate, spatulate, or oblong-lanceolate leaves range from 4-15 cm long with entire to coarsely serrate-dentate margins. The leaves and stem are covered with a fine glandular-pubescence (See photo above.).

The 2-10 flowers have floral parts in fives, with reflexed, bright, pinkish-purple petals with a yellow-ringed tubular base with a red ring. The corolla is 12-20 mm long. The filaments are united at the base into a purplish tube from 1.5-2 mm long. The anther connectives are smooth or transversely wrinkled. The anther is from 5-7 mm long and purplish. The stigma is not enlarged.

Habitat:

Poet's shooting star may be found on seasonally moist grasslands, lightly forested oak woods, or on basalt outcrops.

Range:

Poet's shooting star may be found from north of Satus Pass in Yakima County, WA south to Wasco and Hood River Counties, Oregon.

Poet's shooting stars observed in vernally moist swales along Box Springs Road at the Simcoe Mountains Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area.......April 20, 2018.

Poet's shooting stars observed at left in a small, vernal creek at Brooks Memorial State Park off US 97 near Satus Pass.......May 13, 2019. The photo at right shows poet's shooting stars in bloom on shaded slopes about 10 miles east of Brooks Memorial State Park to the south of Box Canyon Road near the southern boundary of the Simcoe Mountains Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area.....April 15, 2021.

Poet's shooting star as seen along a small stream at the trailhead to Canyon Creek in the Klickitat State Wildlife Area of south-central Washington..........May 8, 2009.

Poet's shooting star observed about one-half mile northwest of Tumwater Corral Springs along a jeep road near the BLM and WDFW boundary at the Simcoe Mountains Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area.....April 1, 2022.

Poet's shooting star observed near Box Canyon Road near the BLM and WDFW boundary at the Simcoe Mountains Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area......May 1, 2022.

Poet's shooting star, Catherine Creek, Columbia River Gorge..........April 6, 2002. Note the numerous tiny glands covering the stem and back of the calyx.

Paul Slichter