AN ARRAY OF BOTANICAL IMAGES

presented by James L. Reveal

Professor Emeritus,
Norton-Brown Herbarium, University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland 20742-5815, U.S.A.


Dodecatheon pulchellum (Raf.) Merr. var. pulchellum

Primulaceae Batsch ex Borkh.

Dodecatheon pulchellum Raf.

Dodecatheon pulchellum (Raf.) Merr. var. pulchellum

Dodecatheon pulchellum (Raf.) Merr., J. Arnold Arbor. 29: 212. 1948, based on Exinia pulchella Raf., Autikon Bot.: 185. 1840. Lectotype, designated here: Bot. Mag. 64: t. 3622. 1837.

     Plants erect, glabrous, herbaceous perennials (0.7) 1-4 dm high, arising from a slender rhizome with white fleshy-fibrous roots, bulblets lacking; leaves basal and forming a rosette atop the short caudex, 4-20 (35) cm long, the blade 1-5 (7.5) cm wide, oblanceolate to ovate or spathulate, acute, obtuse or rounded apically, entire or rarely sinuate or crenate, mostly narrowing gradually to the petiole or if not then plants generally of alkaline areas in the Intermountain Region; stems scapose, 0.6-5 dm long; inflorescences terminal, umbellate, with 2-12 flowers, subtended by a series of upright bracts 0.5-1.5 cm long, these deltoid to lanceolate or elliptic, acute to obtuse apically; pedicels slender, nodding in flower, 1-5 cm long at anthesis, up to 7 cm long in fruit, erect in bud and in fruit; flowers showy, 5-merous, erect in bud, nodding in flower; sepals green, basally united, persistent, the calyx-tube 2-3.5 mm long, the lanceolate to subulate lobes 2.5-6 mm long, acute to acuminate apically, reflexed at anthesis, becoming erect in fruit; petals basally united with a short tube, a dilated throat and strongly reflexed lobes, the corolla tube maroon, yellow above, the lobes 9-14 mm long, magenta to lavender; stamens attached onto the corolla-tube and opposite the corolla-lobes, connivent around the style, long-exserted, the filaments 0.5-3.5 mm long, united by a membrane or rarely nearly free, yellow, smooth or rugulose, the anthers basifixed, lanceolate, obtuse or acute, erect, the pollen sacs yellow or sometimes red to maroon, 3-8 mm long, lanceolate, dehiscing longitudinally on the inner surface, the connective mostly dark maroon to black and smooth but becoming wrinkled when dried; ovary superior, 1-locular, free-central placentation, the style 1, terminal, filiform, slightly exserted beyond the anthers, the stigma capitate, not at all enlarged; fruits a capsule, 5-valvate, cylindric to ovoid, 7 -17 mm long, thin-walled, yellowish to tan or light brown; seeds many, small, ovoid, punctate; 2n= 44.

Distribution: Damp meadows and adjacent edges from Alaska and Yukon to Durango, Mexico, eastward to the western edge of the Great Plains from North Dakota to eastern Arizona and New Mexico mostly below 9000 feet elevation. Flowering from April-August; fruiting through August.

See also Abrams (1951), Barkley (1977, 1986), Correll & Correll (1975), Dorn (1977, 1984), Gleason & Cronquist (1991), Hickman (1993), Hitchcock et al. (1959), Hitchcock & Cronquist (1973), Hultén (1968), Kartesz (1994), Kearney & Peebles (1960), Martin & Hutchins (1980), McDougall (1973), Moss (1959), Munz (1974), Munz & Keck (1959), Scoggan (1978-1979), Stevens (1963), Steyermark (1963), Taylor & MacBryde (1977), Van Bruggen (1985), Weber (1976, 1987, 1990), Weber & Whittman (1994) and Welsh et al. (1993).

      Dodecatheon pulchellum (Latin for beautiful) is commonly called "dark-throat shootingstar." The species was named by the brilliant but eccentric naturalist, Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (1783-1840), a native of Constantinople, who described many American plants (see a history of botanical exploration and discovery in North America north of Mexico). Rafinesque never saw the plant in the wild. He proposed the name based on an illustration published by William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865) in The Botanical Magazine, and as this was the only element cited by him, it is designated here as the lectotype. The illustration was drawn from garden material grown from seed collected by Thomas Drummond (1780-1835) in the "Rocky Mountains" of Canada. The seeds were probably collected in 1825 when Drummond was in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. Hooker indicated the plant was raised at both the Edinburgh and the Glasgow botanic gardens.


Inflorescence
Detail of inflorescence


Flowers
Detail of a flower

     

The genus Dodecatheon (Greek for twelve gods, probably the Olympians, coined by Pliny for an unknown plant but used by Michaux to allude to the number of flowers in an inflorescence) is a member of the primrose family, Primulaceae. The species may be subdivided into four varieties, var. cusickii (Greene) Reveal (Southwest. Nat. 18: 399. 1974), var. alaskanum (Hultén) Boivin (Phytologia 17: 74. 1968), var. monanthum (Greene ex R. Knuth) C.L. Hitchc. (in Hitchc. & Cronquist, Fl. Pacif. Northw.: 353. 1973) and the var. puchellum. The var. pulchellum is the most widespread of the variants being found in damp meadows throughout much of western North America from Alaska to Durango, Mexico.      

The distinction among these variants is not sharp and populations with overlapping characters occur. The staminal tube of var. monanthum is a dark purple. This variety is dubiously distinctly from var. pulchellum, and has been reduced to synonymy in both Hickman (1993) and Welsh et al. (1993). However, the only chromosome count made for var. monanthum is 2n= 88 (from British Columbia) whereas that for var. pulchellum is 2n= 44 (from Alaska). The range of var. montanthum overlaps that of var. pulchellum in portions of the Pacific Coast and the Intermountain Region.      

The remaining variants all have yellow staminal tubes. The var. alaskanum is a coastal expression that occurs from Alaska to Oregon. The leaves of this variant are broader than those of var. pulchellum and tend to be distinctly petiolate. Unlike var. alaskanum and var. pulchellum, the herbage of var. cusickii is distinctly glandular-pubescent throughout. This last variant occurs from British Columbia, Canada, southward to Oregon and eastward to Montana and is by far the most distinct of the segregates.      

In the Intermountain Region there is an expression (see below) of var. pulchellum that is distinctive and may well prove worthy of formal taxonomic recognition. The name Dodecatheon spilantherum is available. This is a small-flowered form with thickish to even somewhat succulent leaves and an enlarged connective with a distinctive purple tip. For example, compare the flowers of the Rocky Mountain expression of var. pulchellum (above; from near Daniel, Wyoming) with those of the alkaline phase (below; from Ash Meadows, Nevada). As may be seen there is a pronounced white rim at the base of the corolla lobes in the former that is replaced by a less conspicuous, yellowish rim in the latter. This curious phase is seen commonly around alkaline springs and seeps among wiregrass, sedges and other graminoids. The var. watsonii (sensu Thompson, 1953; Hitchcock et al., 1959; Hitchcock & Cronquist, 1973) is also distinctive for which the name D. uniflorum is available. This is a subalpine to alpine phase in parts of British Columbia, central Idaho and western Montana. This expression is composed of short plants with inflorescences of only (1) 2-3 flowers. The type of D. watsonii is from the East Humbolt Range of Elko Co., Nevada, and appears to represent a depauperate but otherwise typical form of var. pulchellum.


Habit of the alkaline spring phase of var. pulchellum


Leaves


Inflorescence
Detail of a flower

     

References to Dodecatheon pulchellum east of the western edge of the Great Plains are due to the inclusion of a clearly related species, D. amethystinum (Fassett) Fassett (Rhodora 33: 224. 1931) as noted by Steyermark (1963). Thompson (1953) and Gleason & Cronquist (1991) referred this species to synonymy under D. radicatum, a species synonymized here under the earlier name D. pulchellum. Dodecatheon amethystinum is found primarily in the driftless area of southwestern Wisconsin and adjacent Minnesota, with scattered populations elsewhere from Illinois and Missouri to Pennsylvania. While Thompson (1960) continued to maintain D. amethystinum in synonymy, he did abandon D. radicatum for D. pulchellum.

References

  • Abrams, L. 1951. An illustrated flora of the Pacific States. Vol. 3. Stanford.
  • Barkley, T.M. (ed.). 1977. Atlas of the flora of the Great Plains. Ames.
  • --. 1986. Flora of the Great Plains. Ames.
  • Correll, D.S. & H.B. Correll. 1975. Aquatic and wetland plants of southwestern United States. 2 vols. Stanford.
  • Dorn, R.D. 1977. Manual of the vascular plants of Wyoming. 2 vols. New York.
  • --. 1984. Vascular plants of Montana. Cheyenne, Wyoming.
  • Gleason, H.A. & A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of the vascular plants of the United States and adjacent Canada. Ed. 2. Bronx.
  • Hickman, J.C. (ed.). 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher plants of California. Berkeley.
  • Hitchcock, C. L., A. Cronquist, M. Ownbey, & J. W. Thompson. 1959. Vascular plants of the Pacific Northwest. Univ. Wash. Publ. Biol. 17(4).
  • -- & A. Cronquist. 1973. Flora of the Pacific Northwest: An illustrated manual. Seattle.
  • Hultén, E. 1968. Flora of Alaska and neighboring territories: A manual of the vascular plants. Stanford.
  • Kartesz, J.T. 1994. Synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada and Greenland. 2 vols. Portland, Oregon.
  • Kearney, T.H., & R.H. Peebles. 1960. Arizona flora. Ed. 2. Berkeley.
  • Martin, W.C., & C.R. Hutchins. 1980. A flora of New Mexico. Vaduz.
  • McDougall, W.B. 1973. Seed plants of northern Arizona. Flagstaff.
  • Moss, E.H. 1959. Flora of Alberta: A manual of flowering plants, conifers, ferns, and fern allies found growing without cultivation in the Province of Alberta, Canada. Toronto.
  • Munz, P.A. 1974. A flora of southern California. Berkeley.
  • -- & D.D. Keck. 1959. A California flora. Berkeley.
  • Scoggan, H.J. 1978-1979. The flora of Canada. 5 vols. Ottawa.
  • Stevens, O.A. 1963. Handbook of North Dakota plants. Ed. 2. Fargo.
  • Steyermark, J.A. 1963. Flora of Missouri. Ames.
  • Taylor, R.L. & B. MacBryde. 1977. Vascular plants of British Columbia. Vancouver.
  • Thompson, H.J. 1953. The biosystematics of Dodecatheon. Contr. Dudley Herb. 4: 73-154.
  • --. 1960. A new combination in Dodecatheon (Primulaceae). Leafl. W. Bot. 9: 91.
  • Van Bruggen, T. 1985. The vascular plants of South Dakota. Ed. 2. Ames.
  • Weber, W.A. 1976. Rocky Mountain flora. Boulder.
  • --. 1987. Colorado flora: Western slope. Boulder.
  • --. 1990. Colorado flora: Eastern slope. Niwot.
  • -- & R.C. Whittman. 1994. Catalog of the Colorado flora: A biodiversity baseline. Niwot.
  • Welsh, S.L., N.L. Atwood, L.C. Higgins, & S. Goodrich. 1993. A Utah flora. Ed. 2. Provo.


    • All images copyrighted and may be used only with permission - contact James L. Reveal. Webpage published by the University of Maryland
    Posted: 18 Apr 2000; revised 30 May 2000 and 8 Oct 2001