Wildflowers: White Shooting Star

I noticed several while flowers in among a patch of Henderson Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon hendersonii). On closer examination I was surprised to find two plants with white Shooting Star flowers. According to my source books the white variety, Dodecatheon dentatum, usually has a dark stamen (the dart part) and these have yellow darts. The books also say this variety has dentated or toothed leaves. You can see from the photo that the leaves are oval shaped and smooth edged like the Hendersons nearby. Finally the white variety can be found in Northern Oregon, and these were found in Southern Oregon sixty miles from the California border. BTW, only two plants were found over a five acre plot. Is there possibly another lesser known species with a white flower, or could this be a case of albinoism (Is there such a term?)

 

a bulbotic plant? or of the flowers it´s dificult to identify, but my inglish is not very good, I´m argentine person:P

kiss

 

If it looks just like the ones around it save for the white, then it's just a white form of that species.

 

i hope more people weigh in on this one...yesterday, (april 18, 2009) i found one plant with white flowers in among hundreds of regular hendersonii on vancouver island, b. c....in all other respects, it was identical to the hendersonii....have done a bit of digging and have found some references which confirm that hendersonii can have white flowers, but i can find nothing to say why that happens....like you, meridian, i sure would like to know

 

Tom Wheeler (from UBC Botanical Garden) reported seeing a number of white ones within a large population this past weekend.

Why does it happen? You may want to read this 1934 article Albino Plants of Mt. Rainier. You may also want to read some of this discussion from the Carnivorous Plants listserv.

 

Thanks for the responses, and the information about Mt. Rainier albinism. After reading this and other articles, I suspect the two separate flowers are recessives from a standard Hendersons Shooting Star and an albino. Assuming Shooting Stars require fertilization from others, these could be the offspring of several prior generations. I say this because the two white plants were about four feet apart and contained within a "normal" group about eight to ten feet around. I 'm guessing that the probabilities of two close growing plants going albino in the same season are quite low. From the little I know of genetics, this situation suggests that some of the neighboring plants are the offspring of previous genrations of albino/normals. Although they display the normal colored flowers, they may harbor a recessive albino gene. If these flowers fertilize other plants carrying the same recessives, it would seem likely that a small proportion of the seeds that germinate and grow to adulthood would display the white flower. Well there you go a total amateur running amok with wild theories. Anyway, we've marked out the area and will certainly closely check it next year. Again, thanks for the feedback.

 

thanks for that information, Daniel...it goes a long way in satisfying my curiosity about this phenomenon...it just seemed strange to me that after wandering around among shooting star colonies for more years than i can remember, i had never seen a white one...but perhaps in the past i've just been so overwhelmed by the beauty of a large colony i've never noticed...whatever the reason, the flowers on the whites, while not as dramatic in color, are still just as amazing

and Meridian, it would be interesting to hear what your marked area reveals next year

 

(moved a discussion occurring in this thread about a different species to this thread)

 

I am new to this forum and stumbled across it when trying to find the scientific name of a white shooting star I saw in the Columbia gorge. Happy to find the forum now and participate.

The albino shooting stars sound fascinating, but the one I saw was likely Dodecatheon dentatum. I saw it two places if anyone ever wants to find it: Eagle Creek trail way by Tunnel falls, and at the Elowah falls trail (both on wet rock walls). It was amazing.

 

Thanks for sharing -- yes, very likely Dodecatheon dentatum. If you have any pics, you could post them to the PNW Native Plants area -- the few times I've seen this species, they've grown in relatively dense clusters (though that is true for most shooting stars I've seen).