Besseya rubra
This isn't perhaps the showiest native flower out there, but I think the bloom is very interesting--the reddish spikes with the little yellow florets coming off the sides. I wrote earlier about my friend Jim Roberts introducing me to the local native Palouse flora, and this clump grew from a tiny bit he directed me to, in a drainage ditch near Kamiak Butte. There is another clump behind this one in the background there, and my wife Dona found that one just a day or two after I planted this one. We were walking down the gravel road east of us, and she called me over to a plant struggling out of the gravel, saying that it looked a lot like the one I had just planted. Sure enough, she was right, and we were lucky to rescue it before a grain truck turned it into compost.
Good eye, Dona!
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