Prairie Shooting Star Seeds (Dodecatheon pulchellum)

The sublime prairie shooting star (also commonly called the dark throat shooting star) is a kind of meadow miracle, giving rise to magenta blossoms – striking in both color intensity and form.

The strongly recurved blossoms are fringed at their base by a yellow ring, under which five stamens converge to create a beak-like form. These flowers (sometime variable in color from white to almost purple) are visited intently by bumble bees which affix themselves to the business-end of the flower, causing the entire stem to bob up and down as they go about their work of pollen-collecting. The rosette of basal leaves are likely caterpillar food for two of our beautiful blue Lycaenidae butterflies – the Arctic Blue (Plebejus glandon) and the Sierra Nevada Blue (Plebejus podarce).

This is the most widespread of the western shooting stars, ranging from the Pacific Coast to the Rocky Mountains, and from Alaska to southward into Mexico.

Prairie (or dark-throated) shooting star’s scientific name has recently been updated to Primula pauciflora, although we love the older evocative scientific name, which roughly translates from the Greek words for 12-gods, beautiful, and little (from ancient story of a primrose flower being protected by 12-gods).

While shooting stars have a reputation of being difficult to grow, we haven’t found this to be the case. Seeds benefit from at least two-months of cold stratification (doing well when winter sown outdoors in containers). We think it is useful to provide supplemental irrigation during the seedling’s first summer. With care, these plants can grow fast enough for transplanting within one full growing season. Shooting stars sometimes flower as early as the second year, and once established, are long-lived and carefree.

Mature plants can achieve a height of about 18-inches, and are resplendent with numerous flowers. This plant strongly prefers damp but well drained locations such as rocky seeps, moist embankments, and seasonally damp meadows. As long as the soil conditions are optimal, shooting star is adapted to both partial shade to full sun.

 0.1 grams (100+ seeds)