With a Broad Brush

While these two showy Sonoran wildflowers may look nothing alike at first glance, both are members of the  broomrape family Both also have interesting names. The red-orange prairie-fire, also known as Indian or desert paintbrush grows in profusion along the
ditches and even on cliff faces in northern Arizona. 

Purple Owl's Clover is also known as exserted paintbrush because its flower-head has a tuft-like, 'thrust out' appearance.  The resemblance to clover, I get. The 'owl' not so much, though the hints of yellow among the purple might have something to do with it: a bit like eyes peering out from those feather-like clumps.

The historic uses for the plants are equally interesting.  Some Native Americans ate paintbrush plants in combination with other greens as part of their diet; others used them to concoct a rinse that gave their hair a glossy look. No herbalist, I found myself content just to marvel how their splashes of color made the desert landscape a whole lot brighter.