jimscott,
Interesting question about possible photographic variations. Of course photographic techniques could cause the very same flower to appear with the differences exibited by the two photos you posted. It could be intentional or accidental. Or they could illustrate natural variation in that species, or even show possibly subspecies status, or just flowers of different ages/different microenvironments. I am going to do a little more research to answer these questions for myself, and I will share them with terraforums, too.
In this link to
Proboscidea parviflora, it shows two flowers with differences in their colors and patterns. Perhaps this species has a wide variation in its flowers. I hope to find out definitively.
I have not grown any of this species, yet, even though they are native to my area. If I were more familiar with this species and its natural variation, I could, most likely answer your question with more cerainty. I have already obtained seed of this species from the "
Native Seed | S.E.A.R.C.H.". I will plant some, this next Spring, I will also plan to stop at the nearby ranger station to see if they have more information on how to locate the plant in the wild.
Your question has gotten my interest. I think, it should be one genus of proto-carnivorous plant I should be able to grow with minimal effort. It looks to be a quite attractive plant, and I already know I like the taste and nutrition of the seeds - though it takes quite an effort to extract them from the seedpods without getting hooked wickedly by the claws (of course I didn't completely escape that curse, while I was extracting seed myself). I appreciate the determination and skill illustrated by your first photo in this thread.