Western Blue Flax, Prairie Flax, Wild Blue Flax

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Western blue flax beginning to bloom at left along the Alder Springs Trail #855, Crooked River National Grasslands......May 11, 2018. The photo at right shows the flower of western blue flax in bloom along the Fremont National Recreation Trail on the northwest side of Hager Mountain, Fremont-Winema National Forest......June 18, 2020.

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Western blue flax from Iron Mt in the western Cascades, east of Eugene, OR....7/14/90.

Also known as wild blue flax, western blue flax is a pretty western wildflower often used in wildflower gardens. It is a popular seed in wildflower mixes, although plants may actually be the eurasian species, Linum perenne. The numerous stems grow from 15-80 cm in height from a taproot. The herbage is glabrous or often glaucous. The leaves are numerous and usually longer than the internodes. The are linear in outline, 1-nerved and from 1-3 cm long and 1-3 mm wide.

The inflorescence is a raceme. The pedicels are erect to suberect and 0.5-2 cm long at flowering. The sepals are elliptic to elliptic-ovate in shape with entire margines. The flowers are large, blue-petaled with whitish to yellowish bases. They measure 12-23 mm long and are somewhat wedge-shaped to obovate in shape. The styles are typically about equal to the stamens.

Western blue flax is found on dry, well-drained ground from lower grasslands to the higher alpine ridges.

Western blue flax is found across much of the northern hemisphere. Variety lewisii is the native species found across much of western North America.