Fiddleneck!

I've made a new etsy friend, Janelle, who lives near my hometown. She's a creative photographer who makes lovely cards from her work (also prints available.) I love her images! Visit her "things that are made" shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6448720

Anyway, I love her work, because I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley in California and saw all the terrain for about half of my life. I now live in a much greener environment which I love; but isn't it always this way, you really don't appreciate your surroundings until you are not there anymore?! Simple things of home I miss, like the wildflowers that grow prolifically and cover the hillsides in spring! The state flower is the golden California Poppy; there are also lupines, Indian Paintbrushes, monkey flowers, buttercups, and fiddleneck!!! Janelle shot a picture of a field of fiddleneck that grows everywhere in the valley and the surrounding foothills. It's basically a weed grass that has a blossom on the very end that unfolds as it blooms much like unfolding a coil. An original homesteader, and good quilting friend of mine, introduced me to this overlooked flower, saying: "You can remember it's name by the look of it. The blossom resembles the neck of a fiddle!" If you look close at Janelle's picture, you will see it! (Anyone know the botanical name of this flower?)