Individual flowers, ¾ inch across, are formed of 5 crimson, rather narrow, petals or corolla lobes which flare outward and backward, but unite at their base into a short tube. From this tube 5 conspicuous anthers, over ¼ inch long, grouped together like a sharp straight beak, protrude forward. Ten or more flowers, each on a slender pedicel, nod in a cluster at the top of a stout scape which rises 10 to 15 inches high from a basal mat of dark-green, oblong leaves. Grows along streams and in wet meadows, in montane and sub-alpine zones. Blooms June-early July.

Both the coloring and the shape of this little flower are fancy indeed. It is small wonder that such names as shooting-star and bird-bill have been given it. The crimson of its petals contrasts strongly with its conspicuous almost black “bill,” and between these colors is a little circlet of white, often shaded with yellow markings. A whole meadow of such flowers is a sight well worth a trip to South Park, or to other of our high meadow areas, where shooting-stars can be found in profusion. In blooming season they follow the wild iris and, in turn, they are followed by the low, red lousewort, Pedicularis crenulata, all of which can in favorable seasons give fine mass color effects.