White shootingstar

Dodecatheon latilobum (A. Gray) Elmer ex R. Knuth; D. meadia Linnaeus var. latilobum A. Gray; Primula latiloba (A. Gray) Mast & Reveal

Plants 15-40(-50) cm; scape glabrous. Caudices not obvious at anthesis, or sometimes erect to slightly horizontal, slender; roots white or reddish; bulblets absent. Leaves (3.5-)8-20 (-30) × (1-)2.5-6(-7) cm; petiole slightly winged; blade ovate, base decurrent onto stem, abruptly tapering to petiole, margins subentire to sinuate or crenate, surfaces glabrous. Inflorescences (1-)2-5(-11)-flowered; bracts lanceolate, 1.5-5(-8) mm, glabrous. Pedicels 0.8-5 cm, glabrous. Flowers: calyx light green, 4-6 mm, glabrous, tube 2-3.5 mm, lobes 5, 1.5-3(-4) mm; corolla tube yellow with red, thin, wavy ring, lobes 5, white, 7-18 (-20) mm; filaments distinct, maroon to black, 0.1-0.5 mm; anthers (4.5-)5-7.5 mm; pollen sacs maroon to black, connective dark purple to maroon, smooth; stigma not enlarged compared to style. Capsules pale greenish to tannish, dark yellow apically, valvate, narrowly ovoid, (6-)8-11 × 3-5 mm, glabrous; walls thin, pliable. Seeds without membrane along edges. 2n = 44.

Flowering late spring-summer. Moist stream banks, cliff faces and steep slopes mainly in meadows and open oak and/or conifer woodlands; 60-2600 m; B.C.; Idaho, Oreg., Wash.

Dodecatheon dentatum occurs mainly on the eastern slope of the Cascade Range from south-central British Columbia to central Washington, with disjunct populations near the Columbia River in southwestern Washington, the Columbia River Gorge, northeastern Oregon, and northern Idaho. In Idaho, this species occasionally forms hybrids with D. pulchellum var. pulchellum (Oberle 262, MO).