Why Tiny Wildflowers?

My husband and I retired 5 years ago and decided to sell off almost all of our worldly goods and hit the road in an RV to see America.  Starting out, wildflowers were something that I saw along the ditches while driving down the road.  Soon, as we traveled, hiked, and explored, they became rather fascinating to me.  The infinite variety and beauty began to intrigue.  They all seemed to be begging to have their photograph taken.  Then, as I photographed more and more flowers and tried to research their names (in and of itself a challenge for someone with NO botany experience), I realized that the tiniest of flowers were much harder to find in books and on the internet.  They get little respect in the world of flowers.  Yet I find them the most endearing of all.  Tiny, inconspicuous unless growing in masses, the tiny wildflowers beckon to their pollinators and thrive.  So I decided to start this blog in honor of these, the tiniest of flowers.

If I have mislabeled a flower, please let me know.  My identifications are made through as much research as I can manage, but as I said, I am self-taught and have much yet to learn.

I'll start with a bright yellow, cheerful little fellow called Chamber's Twinpod (Physaria chambersii), usually seen from April through early August.  A member of the Mustard family, this is a small plant, usually between 2 and 6 inches.  It grows in sandy or rocky locations throughout Nevada, Utah, and northern Arizona, with small areas of eastern California and southeast Oregon.  The name twinned describes the fruit which is divided into two sections, each containing four seeds.

Photographed August 14, 2013 at an elevation of 11, 306 feet on Brian Head Peak in Cedars Break National Monument, Utah

Basal leaves, below the flower stalks, are quite large and spoon-shaped, while those along the stalks are much smaller.  The flowers have four petals at right angles, with a small cluster of stamens in the middle, protruding slightly.  The entire flower is 0.8-1 inch across.