shooting star

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Any of several North American perennial herbs of the genus Dodecatheon, having nodding flowers with reflexed petals.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Same as falling-star. See star.
• noun The American cowslip. Dodecatheon Meadia: so called from the bright nodding flowers, which, from the lobes of the corolla being reflexed, present an appearance of rapid motion.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A meteor, especially a streak of light in the night sky, caused by a meteoroid burning up as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere.
• noun Any of several wild flowering plants in the genus Dodecatheon, mostly found in Western North America.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a streak of light in the sky at night that results when a meteoroid hits the earth's atmosphere and air friction causes the meteoroid to melt or vaporize or explode