11 BLUE Wildflowers Found in Arizona! (ID GUIDE)
Did you find a BLUE wildflower in Arizona?
If so, I’m sure you’re wondering what type of wildflower you found! Luckily, you can use this guide to help you identify it. 🙂
Today, we will look at 11 common BLUE wildflowers in Arizona.
#1. Heal-All
- Prunella vulgaris
Also known as Common Self-heal, Woundwort, Heart-of-the-earth, Carpenter’s Herb, Brownwort, or Blue Curls.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 6-12″ (15-30cm)
- Bloom Time: Late Spring-Late Fall
- Sun Exposure: Sun to Partial Shade
This blue wildflower is one of the most common in Arizona.
You will find this purplish-blue wildflower on roadsides, gardens, and on the edge of woodlands.
You can even EAT Heal-all! Some people use it in salads, soups, stews, or boiled as a potherb. In addition, this mint plant has been used by many cultures to treat various physical ailments such as herpes, skin lesions, and throat remedies.
This plant attracts butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. As a result, it is often used as a ground cover on border fronts, meadows, and naturalized landscapes.
#2. Bachelor’s Button
- Centaurea cyanus
Also known as Cornflower.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 2-4
- Life Cycle: Annual
- Approximate mature size: 1-3′ (30-90cm)
- Bloom Time: Late Spring-Late Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun to Light Shade
I think this is one of the prettiest blue wildflowers in Arizona.
This common plant is a magnet for butterflies. In addition, it’s excellent for cutting and drying.
The Bachelor’s Button flowers are daisy-like and virtually pest and disease-free. And can you believe they are also deer and drought tolerant?! I recommend this easy-to-grow plant for borders of flower beds or rock gardens.
#3. Chicory
- Cichorium intybus
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-10
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 1-4′ (30-120 cm)
- Bloom Time: Summer, Fall
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun
This non-native blue wildflower is found throughout Arizona. Typically you will find this plant where it’s sunny and dry, so look for it along roads and open fields.
The exciting thing about Chicory is it is eatable. The leaves are high in vitamins and minerals. You can eat the leaves as a vegetable or in a salad, but beware, they are very bitter tasting. The roots can also be boiled and eaten with butter. Sometimes the root is roasted and ground as a substitute or additive to coffee.
Interestingly, Chicory flowers only bloom for ONE day. And in hot weather, the flower may only be open for a few hours!
#4. Blue Vervain
- Verbena hastata
Also known as the American Vervain or Swamp Verbena.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 2-5′ (60-150cm)
- Bloom Time: Early Summer-Fall
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun
Look for this hardy and drought-resistant wildflower in plains, foothills, wet soils, ditches, shores, wet fields, and roadsides in Arizona.
The Blue Vervain attracts native bees, honeybees, beneficial wasps, small butterflies, skippers, and moths. It is also a great host plant because the Verbena Moth and the Common Buckeye Butterfly caterpillars feed on the leaves.
#5. Common Blue Violet
- Viola sororia
Also known as Common Meadow Violet, Purple Violet, Woolly Blue Violet, Hooded Violet, and Wood Violet.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-10
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 6-10″ (15-25cm)
- Bloom Time: Mid-Spring-Late Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun
Some people consider this beautiful blue wildflower a weed in Arizona!
Believe it or not, the Common Blue Violet can randomly start growing in the middle of your lawn. If it appears, it can attract mason bees, caterpillars, wild turkeys, rabbits, deer, doves, and ants. The ants are attracted to their seeds that are coated with protein.
Interestingly, this wildflower can self-fertilize inside the plant without opening. The seed capsules eventually turn upright, open, and SHOOT OUT their seeds as far as 9 feet away from the plant.
#6. Common Periwinkle
- Vinca minor
Also known as Lesser Periwinkle or Dwarf Periwinkle.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 4-6″ (10-15cm)
- Bloom Time: Year-Round
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun, Shade
The Common Periwinkle is not native to North America. Regardless, this perennial can attract bumblebees, Anthophorid Bees, Mason Bees, and bee flies.
- RELATED:Â 22 PROVEN Flowers That Attract BEES!
This blue wildflower is often used as a ground cover in Arizona. The main benefit is it’s deer resistant!
#7. Blue Toadflax
- Nuttallanthus canadensis
Also known as Canada Toadflax and Old-field Toadflax.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-8
- Life Cycle: Annual or Biennial
- Approximate mature size: 6-24″ (15-60 cm)
- Bloom Time: Early Spring, Early Fall
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Shade
This blue wildflower prefers dry sandy soil in open areas such as grasslands, prairies, and roadsides in Arizona.
Certain caterpillar species will eat this host plant’s leaves. In addition, bees and butterflies are attracted to the nectar of the Blue Toadflax.
#8. Teasel
- Dipsacus fullonum
Also known as Wild Teasel and Fuller’s Teasel.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-8
- Life Cycle: Biennial
- Approximate mature size: 4-6′ (120-180 cm)
- Bloom Time: Summer, Fall
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun to Partial Shade
Arizona‘s teasels are easily identified by their prickly stem and leaves and unique purplish-blue flowers.
This plant attracts some birds, such as the Goldfinches, because the seeds are an important winter food resource.
- RELATED:Â 4 Simple Ways To Attract Goldfinches!
Teasel has health benefits such as a kidney tonic, which promotes the healing of broken bones and torn, injured, or inflamed connective tissue. This makes it helpful in treating Lyme disease symptoms since the Lyme-inducing bacteria often target the nerve, muscle & connective tissues.
#9. Forget-me-not
- Myosotis scorpioides
Also known as Water Forget-me-not, True Forget-me-not, Love-me, Mouse-ear, Mouse-ear Scorpion Grass, Scorpion Weed, and Snake Grass.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 5-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 6-12″ (15-30 cm)
- Bloom Time: Spring, Summer, Fall
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun
The Forget-me-not is also known as the Scorpion Weed. This is because it has a coiled flower stalk like a tail of a scorpion. Some have also said the common name Forget-me-not comes from this plant’s unpleasant taste or odor, which is hard to forget.
Forget-me-nots seeds spread rapidly, and you may find them sprouting up in places you didn’t plan for. Don’t worry; you can dig up the flower and replant it anywhere you want it to be, and they are not bothered by being moved. I suggest not destroying the plant because this perennial attracts butterflies, bees, and moths.
#10. Western Blue Flax
- Linum lewisii
Also known as Prairie Flax, Wild Flax, Lewis Flax, Lewis’s Flax, and Wild Blue Flax.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 1-3′ (30-90 cm)
- Bloom Time: Spring, Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun
The Western Blue Flax blooms for weeks from late spring to mid-summer, but you will notice the flowers open in the morning but are gone in the afternoon. This is because the blooms only last for one day!
This blue perennial has long and tough stem fibers, and the American Indians used them for ropes, cords, fishing lines, and nets.
#11. Prairie Spiderwort
- Tradescantia occidentalis
Also known as Western Spiderwort and Spiderwort.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 10-24″ (25-60 cm)
- Bloom Time: Spring, Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun, Shade
This grass-like plant with exotic-looking blue flowers is found in Arizona‘s plains, foothills, sandy ridges, meadows, fields, and roads.
The Prairie Spiderwort blooms continuously with eye-catching blue flowers. Unfortunately, most flowers are gone by noon. Nevertheless, many native bees value this wildflower.
Do you need more help identifying blue wildflowers in Arizona?
Check out this guide!
Which of these blue wildflowers have you seen before in Arizona?
Leave a comment below!
-
RELATED:Â The 18 MOST Common BIRDS in Arizona! (w/ pics)
-
RELATED: 24 Types of BUTTERFLIES in Arizona! (ID Guide)
