_Dodecatheon Meadia_
_Flowers_--Purplish pink or yellowish white, the cone tipped with
yellow; few or numerous, hanging on slender, _recurved_ pedicels in an
umbel at top of a simple scape 6 in. to 2 ft. high. Calyx deeply
5-parted; corolla of 5 narrow lobes bent backward and upward; the tube
very short, thickened at throat, and marked with dark reddish purple
dots; 5 stamens united into a protruding cone; 1 pistil, protruding
beyond them. _Leaves:_ Oblong or spatulate, 3 to 12 in. long, narrowed
into petioles, all from fibrous roots. _Fruit:_ A 5-valved capsule on
_erect_ pedicels.
_Preferred Habitat_--Prairies, open woods, moist cliffs.
_Flowering Season_--April-May.
_Distribution_--Pennsylvania southward and westward, and from Texas
to Manitoba.
Ages ago Theophrastus called an entirely different plant by this same
scientific name, derived from _dodeka_ = twelve, and _theos_ = gods; and
although our plant is native of a land unknown to the ancients, the
fanciful Linnaeus imagined he saw in the flowers of its umbel a little
congress of their divinities seated around a miniature Olympus! Who has
said science kills imagination? These handsome, interesting flowers, so
familiar in the Middle West and Southwest, especially, somewhat resemble
the cyclamen in oddity of form. Indeed, these prairie wild flowers are
not unknown in florists’ shops in Eastern cities.
Few bee workers are abroad at the shooting star’s season. The female
bumblebees, which, by striking the protruding stigma before they jar
out any pollen, cross-fertilize it, are the flower’s chief
benefactors, but one often sees the little yellow puddle butterfly
about it. Very different from the bright yellow cowslip of Europe is
our odd, misnamed blossom.