I was hiking out into Granite Mountains yesterday ( 10-30 ) and came across a Yucca of the Whipplei variety ( very common in our area ) and it had a new stalk with blooms, something you only normally see blooming from Feb to June. I also found new Thistle plants sprouting which also only occurs in the springtime. The weather has been unusually warm this Octobor here in the High Desert so it most likely fooled these species into thinking it was spring. I put a photo of the Yucca I found blooming and a photo of what a Thistle looks like ( photo taken this spring ) at my Flickr photo site. They can be viewed at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotspringswizard/
They are the first two photos.