Windy Day Bristlehead

  Bristlehead (Carphochaete bigelovii) is a small shrub…a subshrub…that I’m not sure I would have recognized without the flowers and bristles. I wonder if I’ve wandered by this species many times before wondering what the heck it was. The flowers and bristles that helped my ID are contained in a very cool looking long involucre and I read that the throats of the flowers are “purplish” and the petals are white which may explain my fumbling over the color of the flowers...maybe. Anyway, a really nice native plant common in the borderlands and especially common if you recognize it. The photos are mine and taken on a windy spring day.