High Desert Flowers

From early spring until the first hard freeze of fall, I look for wildflowers from the big and showy to the tiny and nearly missed. By this time of summer, any wildflower is a treat. All of the ones to follow are blooming above 4000 ft in elevation and in the High Desert of Oregon.
The first ones are my favorites-- sunflowers. I like the way their heads turn toward the sun, the splashes of brightness that decorate the sides of highways. The plant is almost totally usable. They were cultivated by Native Americans as much as a thousand years ago.


I rarely know the name of flowers even though I have a few books that would let me find them if I would remember what I read-- which is unlikely. In this case... just guessing, based on a book, I think the following is one of the varieties of goldenrod.

I thought I knew what these following ones were-- bachelor buttons-- Well, if not that, then wild blue asters... But nothing, as I looked, quite fit the number of petals or center. Even more complex, they might be two different varieties of whatever they are.

The first photo is beside a high mountain lake; the second near a cattle loading chute but still in an drainage where it would have been moister. Trying to find the right name, I went through every book I had and the internet without finding anything that looked exactly right. So these are-- pretty blue flowers 1 and 2.

Finally teasel which is theoretically a weed but looks beautiful in flower arrangements. I left these where they were. One year I picked cattails from a mountain lake, brought them home only to have them do very odd things (as in explode) after a few weeks. Some things are meant to be enjoyed where they are.
Guess since I mentioned cattails, I should add one. I suppose they are a grass; but whatever their variety, I always photograph them when I get a chance.