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Mentzelia decapetala
Also called Gumbo Lily, Evening Star, Ten Petal Blazingstar, Ten Petalled Blazing Star, Ten Petalled Evening Star, Ten Petalled Stickleaf, Ten Petalled Western Star
Tenpetal blazingstar is a bushy biennial or short-lived perennial from the dry western Great Plains, grown for its large, fragrant white flowers that open at night. Its key needs are full sun and well-drained soil, and it should never sit waterlogged.
Mentzelia decapetala, commonly known as tenpetal blazingstar, evening-star, or ten petaled western star is a biennial or short-lived perennial with large white flowers that bloom at night. It is native to dry areas of the western Great Plains in the United States and southern Canada. Its scientific name and many of its common names refer to the apparent ten petals of the flowers, the only species in the blazing star genus with such wide staminodes.
Tenpetal blazingstar is grown as a garden plant for their large, showy, and fragrant flowers, especially in moon gardens or along roadways. They require full sun in a well drained soil. A long period of being waterlogged will cause plants to die at any stage of growth. Due to the very long and fiberous taproot plants are difficult to transplant and are more often seeded in the desired location in a garden. The root will grow to a depth of 15 cm (6 in) before the top of the plant is 2.5 cm (1 in) tall. Seeds require a one month cool, moist stratification for good germination. It is winter hardy in USDA Zone 4–9.
Tenpetal blazingstar is native to a large part of the Great Plains from northern Texas to southern Canada from Alberta eastwards to Manitoba. In Alberta it grows in the southern quarter of the province. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS database has records of the species across the northern plains in most of Montana, parts of western North Dakota, and scattered through South Dakota. It is also reported by them in Butte County, Idaho, but Plants of the World Online and the Flora of North America (FNA) do not report it as native to Idaho. Likewise they also do not report it as present in either Nevada or North Dakota. Further south on the plains the species grows in much of Wyoming, scattered through Nebraska, the western edge of Iowa, western Kansas, and eastern Colorado. It also can be found in the northeast corner of New Mexico, the Texas panhandle, and in western Oklahoma. In Utah, it is only found in Cache County in the northern part of the state. The population in Grundy County, Illinois is generally agreed to be an introduced species.
Yellowcomet · Whitestem blazingstar · Tropical blazingstar · Candelaria blazingstar · Gold blazingstar · Sunset Crater blazingstar · United blazingstar · Sierra blazingstar · Royal Gorge blazingstar · Bushy blazingstar · Pinyon blazingstar · Goodrich's blazingstar
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mentzelia decapetala 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
