This species didn't evolve among tall weedy non-native grasses, but it still manages to just barely emerge from the weedpit when rain and winds knock down the Avena. One wonders how long it can survive in such conditions.

This species can be identified from some distance due to its lighter color and very long filaments.

See the next observation for close-ups of some nearby plants in a habitat without tall Avena:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/167769171

The color of the close-ups isn't accurate; see the last pix for their true color in the field.

These plants don't have to contend with tall Avena, since they are in a wetter area. See the previous observation for unluckier plants:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/167769170

The first pix here shows a normal B. santarosae flower, and the second pix shows how robust the flower is.

The third pix shows an aberrant flower where two staminodes and/or stamens have been converted to being petal-like! Between those two you can see a typical white laid-back staminode of B. santarosae, and you can see two normal stamens.

Some Brodiaea species are prone to having infrequent aberrant flowers.

I didn't notice this in the field, or else I would have taken a pix from a different angle to better understand the origin of the petal-like things.

These flowers may have been in the same scape, or may have been from plants very close together. Even if they were from plants very close together, those plants were almost certainly genetically identical. B. santarosae corms multiply in number by 5.5 x per year (under potted conditions), and so form large patches that have all originated from a single seedling a long time ago.

Miranda Kennedy told us she had seen blue dicks with inflated stems, which none of the rest of us had ever noticed, so we were on the lookout for one. It didn't take long for Ted Caragozian to find one! It turned out that at the location of the first stem gall Ted found, there were something like five other blue dicks stems with similar inflated stems. They were much less common elsewhere.

I cut open one sample, and found at least five little insects inside. One is shown in the pix here, in pix 1, 2 and 5.

Measurements on the insect: 0.5 mm long and ~0.15 mm wide.

The chamber inside the stem is shaped like a groove through the axis of the stem, and is ~14 mm long and ~0.9 mm wide.

The stem enlargement is 33 mm long and 5 mm wide. The stem below the gall is 1.8 mm wide.

I've placed this under the host species, but if someone knows what critter this is, please give it a proper determination.

See:

https://bugguide.net/node/view/1115360/bgimage

Those appear to be the same critters, but in my obs, the critters are all in one chamber, not in the parallel chambers that @silversea_starsong observed.

Elevation 5800'. Massive woody root about the diameter of a fat guy's thumb, explains how it is flowering profusely despite the very dry climate. Note the glandular bracts that cover immature flowers and are shed once the flower opens.

Sisyrinchium bellum, branched stem with 2 nodes. Several individual plants looked at in the area. May be hybrids? Two other Sisyrinchium idahoense entries for this site. There are exceptions to every rule. "All generalizations are false, including this one." - Mark Twain

A number of iNaturalist observations have been posted of this undescribed taxon from Kelso Dunes and Soda Lake Basin sands, past collectors have placed under M. transmontana. Tasha La Doux and I in the process of compiling background information and conducting morphological and genetic research leading up to the publishing of this as a new taxon.