filaree, Erodium cicutarium, Carson Valley, Gardnerville, Sierra Nevada drainage, elevation 1490 m (4885 ft).

Yes the filaree was way too abundant this year, even in the desert. Published pollen evidence indicates that this was one of the earliest invasive species to reach nearby California, having first arrived at least a decade before the Spanish missionaries in the mid-1700s. Apparently it invaded from an even earlier establishment in northern Mexico. At this point the species seems so well integrated into so many different North American ecosystems, that I have sometimes wondered if it is really a weedy native. But then I see dense monocultures, like this one covering about an acre, and think again.

Uploaded from my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127605180@N04/