Dark-Throated Shooting Star (Primula pauciflora)

Dark-throated shooting star is a unique and striking perennial, featuring vibrant magenta-pink flowers with reflexed petals and bright yellow centers, arising on leafless stalks above clumping basal leaves. These flowers bloom in the spring, and go dormant after setting seed. Pair it with later-emerging plants to ensure continued interest in the garden. Shooting stars rely on a specialized technique called 'buzz pollination,' which is performed by native bumblebees.

Sun Exposure: Full sun to partial shade
Soil & Moisture: Moist to mesic, seasonally wet soil
Mature Size: Up to 50 cm tall
Bloom Time: Spring
Edible: No
Wildlife Value: Attracts beneficial insects, native bees, and other pollinators.
Native Range & Habitat: Moist, often saline meadows, wet coastal bluffs, seeps, streambanks, wetlands. From Alaska south to Mexico, east to the Great Plains
Other Names: Pretty shooting star, few-flowered shooting star, saline shooting star, Dodecatheon pauciflorum