Foothills. Openings, woodlands. Spring.
Prater Ridge Trail, Mesa Verde National Park, May 1, 2006.

This tiny work of art is an early spring bloomer found in scattered patches in moist clearings and in Sagebrush and Oaks.  It frequently grows in the company of Collinsia parviflora (Blue-Eyed Mary).  Microsteris gracilis is often much easier to spot by its red basal leaves than by its very tiny white flowers.  From the height of a human beings eyes, the basal leaves might be taken for berries.

The plant was grown in England from seeds collected by David Douglas (of Douglas Fir fame) near "the banks of the Spoken River, and on high grounds near the Flathead River" (Quote from Intermountain Flora).  In 1829 William Jackson Hooker named the plant Gilia gracilis and it has gone through numerous genus and species name changes since then.  Edward Greene gave the presently accepted genus and species name in 1898.