Here's a tough one. I took this close up of a western fence lizard. While I was examining the photo, I noticed a number of tiny, tightly coiled tendrils completely covered in spines (some of them very long). Fascinating. I've never seen anything like them.

The first photo is a blow up of the area around the lizard's right hind leg, showing the plant. (It's from a different photo -- I took a bunch.)

Wish I could help, but I have no clue - handsome lizard!

It could be some form of Fern, but I don't know.

I just noticed that no one had identified this. I found out from another forum that these "tendrils" are actually seeds of the Erodium plant aka common stork's bill or redstem filaree. Believe it or not, the seeds act like drills. When they contact moisture, they very slowly twist around, driving the seed head into the ground. That's right -- they plant themselves! You can watch an amazing time-lapse video of it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Cool!