dune flowers

scarlet globemallow,

and buckwheats.

There were paintbrush, too. But their colors were different.

The prickly pear cacti were about the same, but I'm not sure about the bees.

But the dune country had a lot of species that you wouldn't find in the sagebrush basins. Things more common in the prairies, like prairie pink,

cinquefoil,

and pussytoes (also known as everlasting).

Wild roses were doing well,

along with their hoards of attending insects.

And in the dunes themselves, some sand-loving species not often seen anywhere else. Like waterleaf,

sego lily,

and some pea that I'm sure must be considered a weed. With the tiniest of blossoms.

I also found Tradescantia, or spiderwort.

A helpful plant to grow in your garden if you live near a nuclear power plant, or uranium mine. The flower's cells are quite sensitive to damage from radiation, and the more they receive, the pinker the blossoms become.

And, of course, this sand flower.

So called because it grows in sand, and despite having looked it up several times...

I still don't remember it's real name.