Wonders of nature

This weed is very common for our area and until I took some pictures of dandelions inspired by the work of "svetslike", I hadn't paid a lot of attention to them. The following images are in the order of which they occur as far as I can tell. The closest reference so far is some sort of hawkweed.
Here is the full blossom. This seems to occur while the stalk is just a few inches high.
Side view of the above flower.
Here it appears to be withering, as it grows taller. I haven't observed it long enough to tell if it continues to grow until the seed head ripens. The flowers seem to all be on shorter stalks.
Here it is in it's full glory. I would never have guessed at the beauty of this small seed pod. The macro lens brings out the full beauty. The enlarged image linked here is only about half the size of the original file. I don't know if there is another stage between the previous image and this, but these were all I have seen.
Here it is in it's decline, but still retaining a certain "architectural" beauty.
This image shows the relative size.
The final result.