Thank you very much. A search on Puccinia monoica brought up some pictures that look a lot like mine. We do have a couple specious of Rockcress near the area of sagebrush steppe this was found. Is the infection contagious to the other plants? I found a lot of Rockcress last Spring, but only the one like this. In another area I found many that apparently had this fungus though - bper

I see that now, as I read, thanks. The leaves reminded me so much of a crown of thorns house plant I used to have, but I know that house plant does not get berries.

Thanks everybody. It's the background plant I'm talking about, (the one with many small branches that are brown in color) it looks like a mini bush. It was growing in the thin layer of soil on a rock, and was at a south facing location that's pretty dry. Can't get anymore pictures today (bad weather), but I probably can in 2 or 3 days. A new species? lol :-)

Out of the three, I would want to keep the white daisy one. I wasn't sure about the berry one (common nightshade?), since some idiot who planned this community planted a similar looking tree that has black berries (Chinese of Japanese something--invasive and generally disliked). The aster weed is pretty, but very hard to pull if you decide to try! It takes out clumps of dirt when I pull them, and it does spread pretty easily! So I'm going to pull the berry plants tomorrow. I was hoping they were something non-toxic, but I don't want to chance my dog getting a hold of some of the berries. :) They're pretty.