I finally got some new pictures. I hope they will help.
And as a comparison, this is some buds forming about halfway up a known Rough Blazingstar. The top flowers are starting to open up. You can see how slightly elongated the buds are.
This is off topic: I saw somewhere on the site that they want photos without other objects if possible. Understandable. There is a lot of green, so used my hand. What is the best way to show contrast in the photo without using something or resorting to cutting off a chunk of the plant.? I do not like cutting off native flowers to give them all a chance to go to seed and hopefully spread.
