On a recent hike I was excited to discover a plant I was unfamiliar with.

For those of you who grew up in the Western US, you probably are familiar with this meadow-dwelling plant.

I had never seen it until recently and spent quite a lot of time getting some close up looks of its delightfully beautiful colors, symmetries, and patterns.

I looked it up  using a wildflowers guide for flowers from one of the county extensions here in Utah, and identified it as Elkweed.

Seeing this plant in close up gives me a hint of what it must be to see the world from the perspective of a pollinator. This would be an attractive plant to try to include in a native plants garden in the Intermountain West.