"I've never lived as you do, but I know what you mean. When the night is dark--why, the stars are sharp-pointed, and there's quiet. Why, you rise up and up! Every pointed star gets driven into your body."

- from The Chrysanthemums

These aptly named wildflowers are Holy Shooting Stars, not Chrysanthemums. They put in an appearance when conditions in the mountains are moist. As soon as the land begins to dry out, the little shooting stars begin to fade away. We found clumps of them, both purple and white varieties, in the Santa Lucia Mountains east of the town of Carmel; the were still wet from the previous evening, when a mild rainstorm washed over Steinbeck Country.