Silverleaf Psoralea: What's not to love about blue blooms?

Silverleaf Psoralea, Grasslands National Park. © SB

Few flowers are blue, which may explain my love for Silverleaf Psoralea's lovely bright blue (and sometimes purplish) flowers.

These native wildflowers are common — but also unusual in my experience, as I've only seen them in places where the land is unbroken prairie, with its rich array of growth. (And, as I live in a city, those aren't my usual surroundings.)

The flowers are small and bristle with hairs on the undersides, which look like the sepals or calyx to me, with my very faint recollections of high school botany... And the silvery leaves are also fairly hairy.

Silverleaf Psoralea grows in colonies, and the plants are quite conspicuous, with their dark flowers and pale leaves. These plants go by a range of names, including Silver-leaf Scurf-pea, which — while a much less musical name — clearly IDs the flowers as being pea-flower-shaped.

Closer view of hairy and blue Silverleaf Psoralea, Grasslands National Park. © SB

Sturdy stalk of Silverleaf Psoralea, Grasslands National Park. © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Silverleaf Psoralea
Location: Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada
Photo Date: July 25, 2016

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