Primula pauciflora - Saline Shooting Star

Saline Shooting Star is a striking perennial that brings a burst of magenta-pink flowers with swept-back petals and bright yellow centers, resembling shooting stars wherever it grows. It attracts native bumblebees, which rely on specialized buzz pollination, a technique honeybees cannot perform. Pairing it with later-emerging plants ensures continued interest and provides protective shade as summer heats up. With its vibrant blooms and adaptability, it adds beauty and ecological value to naturalized plantings and restoration projects in both urban and rural landscapes.

Found in moist meadows, saline flats, and riparian areas, Saline Shooting Star thrives in moist to seasonally wet meadows, seeps, and rocky slopes, forming clumps of lance-shaped green leaves. This hardy native is an excellent choice for rain-fed areas such as the base of eavestroughs, drainage swales, and dry creek beds. While young shoots may be browsed, mature plants are typically left undisturbed, offering moderate resistance to deer and other herbivores.