Primula pauciflora(Greene) A.R.Mast & Reveal

darkthroat shootingstar

WFO wfo-0001280200 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Primula pauciflora, photographed by F Quiec
fig. a F Quiec, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-06-07 / obs. 204512311
Primula pauciflora, photographed by Braden J. Judson
fig. b Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202294757
Primula pauciflora, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. c Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202163263
Primula pauciflora, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. d Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202077130
Primula pauciflora, photographed by Randal
fig. e Randal, CC0 1.0 / obs. 200962632
Primula pauciflora, photographed by Randal
fig. f Randal, CC0 1.0 / obs. 200977328
Primula pauciflora, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. g Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202047089
Primula pauciflora, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. h Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 201779383

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused with by our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Native range 22 botanical countries

Regions where Primula pauciflora is native: Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Manitoba, Mexico Northeast, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Oregon, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Yukon AlaskaAlbertaArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoManitobaMexico NortheastMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesOregonSaskatchewanSouth DakotaUtahWashingtonWyomingYukon
Native distribution of Primula pauciflora, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Manitoba MAN
Mexico Northeast MXE
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Oregon ORE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 830 in flower of 878 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Primula pauciflora observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 830 of 878 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 74 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Dodecatheon amethystinum f. margaritaceum Fassett
  • Dodecatheon amethystinum f. stricklerae (Fernald) Fassett
  • Dodecatheon cusickii Greene
  • Dodecatheon cusickii f. album (Suksd.) H.St.John
  • Dodecatheon cusickii var. album Suksd.
  • Dodecatheon integrifolium var. minus Hook.
  • Dodecatheon integrifolium var. vulgare Hook.
  • Dodecatheon macrocarpum (A.Gray) R.Knuth
  • Dodecatheon macrocarpum var. alaskanum Hultén
  • Dodecatheon meadia f. stricklerae Fernald
  • Dodecatheon meadia var. macrocarpum A.Gray
  • Dodecatheon meadia var. pauciflora Durand
  • Dodecatheon meadia var. pauciflorum Durand
  • Dodecatheon meadia var. puberula Nutt.
  • Dodecatheon multiflorum Rydb.
  • Dodecatheon pauciflorum (Durand) Greene
  • Dodecatheon pauciflorum f. album (Suksd.) H.St.John
  • Dodecatheon pauciflorum subsp. eupauciflorum R.Knuth
  • Dodecatheon pauciflorum subsp. monanthum (Greene) R.Knuth
  • Dodecatheon pauciflorum subsp. salinum (A.Nelson) R.Knuth
  • Dodecatheon pauciflorum var. alaskanum (Hultén) C.L.Hitchc.
  • Dodecatheon pauciflorum var. cusickii (Greene) H.Mason ex H.St.John
  • Dodecatheon pauciflorum var. monanthum Greene
  • Dodecatheon pauciflorum var. shoshonense A.Nelson

and 50 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol DOPU. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.