I HAVE ALWAYS loved castillejas. They seem to me to be the quintessential wildflower of our western landscapes. Castillejas can be seen almost everywhere in the western part of North America, in many different habitats. I have seen them on the Oregon and California coasts, on the shores of Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca where I live, in the deserts of eastern Washington and Oregon, and, of course, in the mountains of Oregon and Washington. The over 100 different species grow in many other places in the West, from Canada on down into Texas and Mexico.