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Dodecatheon hendersonii
Also called Mosquito bills
Henderson's shooting star is a North American woodland wildflower with nodding magenta to white flowers on short stems, from the primrose family. It is summer dormant and must have good drainage and a dry summer rest to thrive.
Primula hendersonii is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae, native to western North America, from California north to southern British Columbia and Idaho. Common names include broad-leaved shooting star, Henderson's shooting star, mosquito bills, and sailor caps.
It needs good drainage, and needs a dry summer period. Plants germinated from seed may take 3–5 years to produce flowers. For some plants, with frequent light fertilization and moisture, dormancy may be delayed, and flowering time may be decreased to 1–2 years. Another technique to speed flowering is to place them in a cooler after dormancy, then bring them to a shadehouse in midsummer. It can be propagated by division in winter. It prefers shade when inland.
In California, it occurs in the northwest (except the north coast), the Cascade Range, the Sierra Nevada foothills, the Central Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area, the north Inner South Coast Ranges, and the San Bernardino Mountains. It is generally found in open woodlands, from sea level in British Columbia, up to 1,900 m (6,230 ft) altitude in California.
The leaves and roots can be eaten when roasted or boiled, but are reported to be poisonous when eaten raw.
Primula latiloba · Primula meadia · Dark Throat Shootingstar
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Primula hendersonii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
