They seem exotic to me.

My hike in the Lakes Basin last Thursday reminded me in some ways of a trip I took to the Galapagos Islands many years ago. I was asked to give lectures about the islands and Charles Darwin to a group of tourists. These lectures were to be given on the ship on the way to the islands. Problem was, I had never been there before! I read a lot, of course, and had studied zoology in college, so I had a good book knowledge of the place. But, that's not the same as learning on-site.
In the case of the Lakes Basin, I had been there before, but not often. Especially not focused on learning the flora and fauna in any detail. Thus, I relied a lot on books I had read and my general knowledge of natural history. It helped that I had visited a number of Plumas and Sierra County mountaintops at a similar elevation. So, I stumbled across a few species of flowers I had never seen before, including the two pictured here. I didn't recognize the Twinberry at first. I didn't linger and consult my field guides, but I did get a few good photos so I could consult the books when I got home. When I found the Twinberry in one of my field guides, I realized I had known about the flower (i. e., shrub) and its affiliations for a long time based on pictures in books, but I had never seen it in situ. This particular Twinberry, AKA Twinberry Honeysuckle, and Black Twinberry, is in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, and its scientific name is Lonicera involcrata. The sensation I got when I matched my photos to the pictures and text in my field guide was similar to how I felt when I first saw Galapagos Tortoises, Blue-footed Boobies, and Sally Lightfoot Crabs in the Galapagos. I guess it's somewhat similar to the feeling upon seeing a famous person for the first time whose photos you recognized beforehand. Like most discoveries in nature, it led to all sorts of questions that I must investigate and stirred my interest in repeated visits. Is it edible? Can I transplant it? Would those berries make good ink? One of my passions as an adolescent was making various colors of ink out of wild berries. Pokeweed was my favorite.
The second plant shown here (bottom photo) fooled me at first. I thought it might be Jewelweed. However, it's actually a "pink," that is, a member of the pink family, AKA the carnation family, Caryophyllaceae. Its scientific name is Silene sargentii. There are quite a number of species of Silene in the Sierra, and I was already familiar with California Indian Pink, Silene californica. Again, the discovery of a new plant and its affiliations is very exciting. More still to come tomorrow, although the flow could be interrupted by new discoveries at daybreak!