The common shooting star, Dodecatheon meadia.
(Photo by Michael Jeffords)
By staring at the sky long enough during a spring evening, one might be rewarded with the sight of a shooting star or two. Spending several daylight hours in a prairie or open woods during the spring could also yield shooting stars--hundreds of them, of the plant variety.
Shooting stars are perennials belonging to the genus Dodecatheon. They have a smooth, hollow, unbranched stem that holds a cluster of rose-, white-, or lilac-colored flowers, above a basal rosette of light green oval leaves. Each flower in the cluster is 1 to 1.5 inches long with five strongly backward-pointing petals. At the tip of each flower, the five yellow stamens surround a single pistil in a cone-shaped arrangement that gives the illusion of speeding motion.
The flower stalks curve so that the flowers nod when they are in bloom. Following pollination by bees, the ovary grows into a brown, paper-thin fruit. As the fruits ripen, the flower stalks straighten so that when the fruits are mature the flower stalks are erect. The fruit is a capsule containing numerous tiny seeds that mature and are released in late summer. Despite the seeds' small size, they are relatively heavy and the wind does not carry them very far.
The common shooting star, Dodecatheon meadia.
(Photo by Michael
Jeffords)
The unusual shape of the petals and stamens gave the plant its common names--mosquito bills, birdbills, and shooting star. The similarity of the plant to the English primrose, or cowslip, has led to the name "American cowslip." The name "prairie pointers" was given to the plant by early settlers during a time when both prairies and the plant were much more common.
Illinois has three representatives of the genus Dodecatheon, all blooming from mid to late spring. The most abundant member is Dodecatheon media, the common shooting star, which can be found throughout the state. The plant is found in open, dry woods or prairies. Dodecatheon amethystinum, the jeweled shooting star, grows on north-facing cliffs and bluffs lining the waterways of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers that are exposed to northwest winds. The plants typically grow in thin soil just above or below a limestone or dolomite outcropping. When the plants bloom in early May, the rocky slopes are clothed in a blanket of pink that can be seen from the highway below. The plant has magenta flowers and a small, frail fruit (the common shooting star has a tough fruit).
The final species, Dodecatheon frenchii, is named after Southern Illinois University botany professor George Hazen French, who first discovered the plant in 1871. The plant grows under the drip lines of sandstone ledges, where the sandy soil is very moist during the plant's growing season. In Illinois, French's shooting star is restricted to a belt approximately 10 miles in width called the Shawneetown Ridge. The plant appears to be smaller than the common shooting star, and French's shooting star has twice as many chromosomes as the common species.
When seeking shooting stars, whether at Bell Smith Springs for French's shooting star, Mississippi Palisades State Park for the jeweled shooting star, or your local prairie remnant for the common shooting star, always remember to look down, not up!
Susan Post, Center for Economic Entomology.
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