About 50 species in North America and Asia, of which about 14 are in North 

 America. All are worthy of cultivation and are easily grown, especially in rich 

 moist or even wet partially shaded situations. They readily seed themselves. 



1. Flowers 4-merous; stigma enlarged, at least twice the diameter of the style; 



connective rugose; filaments short, 0.5 mm. long, free 



1. D. alpinum. 



1. Flowers 5-merous; stigma not enlarged; connective smooth (sometimes rough- 



ened in drying); filaments 0.5-3.5 mm. long, free or somewhat 

 united into a tube (2) 



2(1). Capsule wall thick, ligneous, not flexible; distribution in Oklahoma and 

 Texas 2. D. Meadia. 



2. Capsule wall thin, usually flexible under the slightest pressure; distribution in 



New Mexico and Arizona (3) 



3(2). Leaf blades gradually tapered into the petiole, with a cuneate base; anthers 



lanceolate; corolla lobes usually magenta to lavender 



3. D. pulchellum. 



3. Leaf blades abruptly narrowed into the petiole, with a subcordate base; anthers 



subulate; corolla lobes always white 4. D. dentatum. 



1. Dodecatheon alpinum (Gray) Greene subsp. majus H. J. Thomps. 



Plants usually glabrous, the upper part of the scape and inflorescence sometimes 

 glandular-pubescent; roots white, without bulblets; leaves including petiole 6-16 

 cm. long, 9-16 mm. wide, linear to linear-oblanceolate, acute to obtuse, the blade 

 gradually tapered into petiole and entire; scape 14-30 cm. tall; umbels 4- to 

 10-flowered; bracts to 1 cm. long, lanceolate, acute to acuminate; pedicels 1-3 cm. 

 long in flower, longer in fruit; flowers 4-merous; calyx tube 2-3 mm. long; calyx 

 lobes 4-6 mm. long, lanceolate, acute; corolla tube maroon, yellow above; corolla 

 lobes 9-16 mm. long, magenta or lavender, never white; filaments 0.5 mm. long, 

 free or united by a thin membrane, black; anthers 5-7 mm. long, linear, the straight 

 sides gradually tapered to the obtuse to blunt apex, the pollen sacs dark, the 

 rugose connective dark maroon to black; stigma enlarged, at least twice the diam- 

 eter of the style: capsule 6-8 mm. long, 3-4 mm. wide, ovoid, the wall thin, valvate. 



In wet mt. meadows and along streams in Ariz. (Apache, Navajo, Coconino and 

 Greenlee cos.), June-Sept.; also Ore., Calif., Nev. and Ut. 



2. Dodecatheon Meadia L. 



Perennial glabrous herb with fibrous roots and a cluster of basal leaves from 

 which arise a simple naked scape to 55 cm. high that supports at the summit an 

 involucre of small bracts that subtend an umbel of showy flowers; leaves narrowly 

 elliptic-oblong to oblanceolate, blunt or rounded at apex, tapering from the reddish- 

 tinged base into the petiole, usually with entire margins, to 2 dm. long and 4 cm. 

 wide above middle; flowers few to many; pedicels slender, erect when young, 

 recurving in anthesis, ascending in fruit; calyx lobes 5, lanceolate, usually about 

 5 mm. long in anthesis, slightly longer and persistent in fruit; corolla lilac to pale- 

 pink, with a very short tube and thickened throat, the 5 oblong-elliptic lobes to 

 25 mm. long and 1 cm. wide, strongly reflexed; tube of filaments 1-2 mm. long; 

 anthers linear, about 8 mm. long, connivent to form a slender cone; capsule ovoid, 

 dark-reddish-brown, to 18 mm. long, with firm ligneous wall, opening by 5 short 

 terminal valves. 



On open slopes, swampy flatwoods, about lakes, base of bluffs, in cedar brakes 

 and in open moist woods in e. third of Tex. w. rarely to Travis Co, and e. and 

 Arbucklean Okla. (Waterfall), Mar.-May; from D.C., w. to Wise, s. to Ga. 

 and Tex. 



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