E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of BC

Trientalis latifolia Hook.
Northern Starflower (broad-leaved starflower; starflower; western starflower)
Myrsinaceae (Myrsine family)

Introduction to Vascular Plants

General:
Plants from a usually vertical tuber; tuber 1-2 cm.

Leaves:
Leaves mostly whorled at stem apex; primary leaves 3-8, elliptic or broadly elliptic to almost orbiculate, widest around midpoint, apices acute to acuminate (sometimes rounded), bases long tapering, (2.5) 4-11 cm; stem leaves alternate, reduced and scale-like.

Flowers:
Flowers 1-5 per plant; corollas pinkish to whitish, 4.5-9 mm across; corolla lobes ovate to lanceolate, apices acute to acuminate; pedicels shorter than to slightly longer than the leaves (especially in fruit), glabrous to sparsely glandular, 3-4.5 cm. Flowering Apr-Jun.

Fruits:
Fruits globose capsules, valvate; seeds black to reddish-brown, with a deciduous, white, net-like coating.

Stems:
Stems 10-25 cm tall.

Source: The Vascular Flora of British Columbia, draft 2014.
Author: Jamie Fenneman

No combination for Trientalis latifolia in Lysimachia has been proposed, so no names are available for the species if it is moved to that genus. This is a common forest herb in southwestern B.C., where it can be found in a wide variety of woodland habitats; it is considerably less common elsewhere in B.C.

A very similar species, Trientalis borealis Raf. (BOREAL STARFLOWER), occurs throughout most of the boreal regions of Canada east of the Rocky Mountains, occurring west to northern Alberta; it may occur in extreme northeast BC. It has narrower primary leaves than T. latifolia (lanceolate or lanceolate-elliptic, rather than broadly elliptic to nearly orbicular), with fewer flowers per plant (1-3) and consistently white corollas (corollas usually pink or pink-tinged in T. latifolia). Some plants of T. latifolia (particularly on Vancouver Island) approach T. borealis in leaf shape and corolla colour; however, the two species have widely allopatric distributions and are not known to occur together, which greatly facilitates their identification.

Source: The Vascular Flora of British Columbia, draft 2014
Author: Jamie Fenneman

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