Primula pauciflora

Beautiful shooting star, Beautiful Shooting Star

Family: Primulaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.2

Beautiful shooting star is a rare (CNPS 4.2) California native perennial found in the northern California High Cascade Range and Great Basin regions in wet meadows at elevations of 1,200 to 2,200 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces magenta to lavender flowers with distinctive long petals and dark maroon to black flower centers. Growing with glabrous stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall, it forms compact clusters of 2 to 15 blooms. Its leaves are oblanceolate to ovate, measuring 4 to 25 centimeters long, with gradually narrowed bases and generally entire edges. The plant produces a 5-valved fruit and grows with remarkable color variation in its flower and flower center structures.

Habitat: Wet meadows

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 1200-2200 m

Bioregions: CaRH, GB (expected but evidently not collected W&ampI), DMtns

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.