The 'shooting stars' are American Primulas, known as Dodecatheon, but now in a section of their own within the genus Primula. Almost all of them require cool, moist conditions, like most primulas. All have characteristic flowers with sharply reflexed petals.

Primula (Dodecatheon) conjugens has magenta flowers with a bright yellow band at the base over shiny foliage. It comes from the west of America, from California to Saskatchewan, and is known as the Bonneville shooting star, the slimpod shooting star and even the desert shooting star - despite the fact that it grows in places that are wet during its growing season.