For Your Garden - June 2008

Wildflowers are blooming everywhere now. Are you preparing your garden for some new plants? Have you ever thought of including native wildflowers in your garden? Native wildflowers are resistant to cold and drought and are rarely attacked by disease and insects. They are perennials that you can enjoy year after year without having to provide them with much care.

shooting-star (Dodecatheon meadia)
Photo © River Valley Photographic Resources Ltd., rvprltd.com

The unusual flowers of shooting-star may be pink or white and are produced in April and May. A native of moist prairies, open woods and meadows, all the leaves of this plant grow at its base. The flower stalk is slender and reaches one to two feet in height. The flowers develop at the tip of a stalk in a cluster. Each of the five petals points backward. They are joined at the base by a yellow tube. Five pollen-producing structures form a beak below where the petals meet.

Classification and taxonomy are based on Mohlenbrock, Robert H. 2014. Vascular flora of Illinois: A field guide. Fourth edition. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. 536 pp.

​Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Primulales
Family: Primulaceae