Interesting plants

Rode up to Susanville Peak today and along the way I found this interesting plant. I've seen this thing before, but the pods were never full before. Usually the pods are flat and kind of resemble pea pods... These things are full of air and I popped some when I ran over them, that's what alerted me to their interesting weirdness. There were droplets of water inside so my guess is that the water vapor has something to do with the swelling. They were sealed pretty good and don't deflate easily, you have to squeeze them pretty hard to pop them.

I just love to see new things when I'm out riding and they are all there for your viewing pleasure, if you just stop and look.

Doubtless I have missed these things many times by not paying close attention to the vegetation on my travels. Now I need to find a good flower book so I can identify this thing. There was a lot of smoke from the fire down near Paradise blocking the nice views I got from the top of the hill but looking north you could still see Round Valley Lake and Eagle Lake off in the distance.