Dodecatheon pulchellum
Encyclopedia
Dodecatheon pulchellum, commonly known as pretty shooting star, few-flowered shooting star, dark throat shooting star and prairie shooting star, is a perennial
herb
with single, leafless flower
stem
s, growing from very short erect root stocks with no bulblets. It grows to a height of 5 to 40 centimeters.
Its leaves are basal
, 2-15 cm long, blades oblong
-lanceolate to oblanceolate, mostly entire to somewhat small-toothed, narrowed gradually to winged stalks nearly as long.
Each plant has between 1 and 25 flowers clustered at the stem top. The calyx
is usually purple
-flecked, and the five lobes are 3 to 5 millimeters long. The corolla is 10 to 20 millimeters long, the 5 lobes swept backwards, purplish-lavender
, seldom white
, the short tube yellowish, usually with a purplish wavy line at the base. The filaments are joined into a yellowish tube 1.5-3 mm long, which is smooth or only slightly wrinkled. The 5 anthers are joined to a projecting point, usually yellowish to reddish-purple, 4-7 mm long. The stigma is slightly larger than the style. This plant flowers between April and August.
The fruits are capsules
, many-seeded, ovoid-cylindric, hairless to glandular-hairy, membranous to firm-walled, 5-15 mm long, opening from the tip into sharp teeth.
-Colville
and Blackfoot Indians. An infusion
of the root
s was used as a wash for sore eyes. A cooled infusion of leaves was used for eye drops
. An infusion of leaves was gargled, especially by children, for cankers.
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
herb
Herb
Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...
with single, leafless flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
stem
Plant stem
A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , conifer cones, roots, other stems etc. The internodes distance one node from another...
s, growing from very short erect root stocks with no bulblets. It grows to a height of 5 to 40 centimeters.
Its leaves are basal
Anatomical terms of location
Standard anatomical terms of location are designations employed in science that deal with the anatomy of animals to avoid ambiguities that might otherwise arise. They are not language-specific, and thus require no translation...
, 2-15 cm long, blades oblong
Rectangle
In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is any quadrilateral with four right angles. The term "oblong" is occasionally used to refer to a non-square rectangle...
-lanceolate to oblanceolate, mostly entire to somewhat small-toothed, narrowed gradually to winged stalks nearly as long.
Each plant has between 1 and 25 flowers clustered at the stem top. The calyx
Sepal
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...
is usually purple
Purple
Purple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue, and is classified as a secondary color as the colors are required to create the shade....
-flecked, and the five lobes are 3 to 5 millimeters long. The corolla is 10 to 20 millimeters long, the 5 lobes swept backwards, purplish-lavender
Lavender
The lavenders are a genus of 39 species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. An Old World genus, distributed from Macaronesia across Africa, the Mediterranean, South-West Asia, Arabia, Western Iran and South-East India...
, seldom white
White
White is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...
, the short tube yellowish, usually with a purplish wavy line at the base. The filaments are joined into a yellowish tube 1.5-3 mm long, which is smooth or only slightly wrinkled. The 5 anthers are joined to a projecting point, usually yellowish to reddish-purple, 4-7 mm long. The stigma is slightly larger than the style. This plant flowers between April and August.
The fruits are capsules
Capsule (fruit)
In botany a capsule is a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. A capsule is a structure composed of two or more carpels that in most cases is dehiscent, i.e. at maturity, it splits apart to release the seeds within. A few capsules are indehiscent, for example...
, many-seeded, ovoid-cylindric, hairless to glandular-hairy, membranous to firm-walled, 5-15 mm long, opening from the tip into sharp teeth.
Native Americans
Pretty shooting star was used medicinally by the OkanaganOkanagan
The Okanagan , also known as the Okanagan Valley and sometimes as Okanagan Country is a region located in the Canadian province of British Columbia defined by the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River. As of 2009, the region's population is approximately 350,927. The...
-Colville
Colville
-Places:Canada*Colville Lake, Northwest Territories*Colville Lake , for which the communiy is namedNew Zealand*Colville, New Zealand, on the Coromandel Peninsula, and the following nearby features:** Cape Colville...
and Blackfoot Indians. An infusion
Infusion
An infusion is the outcome of steeping plants with desired chemical compounds or flavors in water or oil.-History:The first recorded use of essential oils was in the 10th or 11th century by the Persian polymath Avicenna, possibly in The Canon of Medicine.-Preparation techniques:An infusion is very...
of the root
Root
In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...
s was used as a wash for sore eyes. A cooled infusion of leaves was used for eye drops
Eye Drops
Eye Drops was a television program on TechTV that showcased short computer animation movies and clips made using off the shelf 3D animation software. The show claimed to showcase all different types of animation, but only a very small number of shorts featured non-CG animation...
. An infusion of leaves was gargled, especially by children, for cankers.