They are wonderful little weeds - and quite a few of them aren't even natives, but tagged along with us when we migrated from Europe. A favourite thing of mine to do, when I lived near a set of train tracks, was to hike along the line in midsummer and see what Western or Central Canada plants (usually annuals) had managed to hitch a ride on a dusty train car, to flourish for just one summer in an environment that wouldn't allow them the time to propagate.

Once, not near a railroad but in a pine stand in a dry area, I found a very beautiful flower that I've never identified. It was lavender in colour, large as a small tulip, but with a nodding (bell) head. The edge of the bell was spreading and ruffled, and a darker purple than the body of the flower. Leaves were strap-like, plant eight to ten inches high, stem thin. It looked like it might have been a wild lily of some sort, but it had no separate petals, just the entire bell (like a harebell). Also, not likely a lilium, more likely an annual of some kind. I guessed its seed flew in with a migrating bird from some Southern location, and just managed to find the spot where it could grow..