Tired of Winter?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of shivering and wondering how icy the world might be tomorrow. I want some spring flowers. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait weeks and weeks before any of 2015’s flowers dare to show themselves. (And when they do arrive, we’ll have pollen allergies to cope with.)

So here’s the next best thing: an assortment of flowers from other years and other places. With no pollen. Enjoy.

Travel Theme: Mystery flower

This week, I’m jumping in on Ailsa’s Travel Themes (the theme is “flowers” at the moment). While I’m at it, I have a question: does anybody know what kind of flower this is?

I took the picture in June of 2005 at a highway rest stop somewhere in eastern New Mexico, just because it looked so strange. The flower looks like a cluster of fat greenish buds that open up to release incredibly long red stamens – longer than my fingers. Obviously it likes desert,or semi-desert conditions, and it looked like a “volunteer”, or weed, not something intentionally planted.

So – what is it?