15 BLUE Wildflowers Found in North Dakota! (ID GUIDE)
Did you find a BLUE wildflower in North Dakota?
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 15 common BLUE wildflowers in North Dakota.
#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 North Dakota.
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 North Dakota.
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 North Dakota. 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. Narrowleaf Blue-eyed Grass
- Sisyrinchium angustifolium
Also known as Bermuda Blue-eyed Grass and Blue-eyed Grass.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-11
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 4-20″ (10-50 cm)
- Bloom Time: Late Spring-Early Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun
This blue wildflower is widespread and found throughout North Dakota. You will typically see this plant in moist meadows, damp fields, open woods, floodplain forests, sandy thickets, riverbanks, and roadsides.
The Narrowleaf Blue-eyed Grass is an excellent source of nectar and pollen. This makes this plant good for attracting butterflies, bees, and other insects. It also can attract songbirds because many birds eat these perennial seeds.
#5. 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 North Dakota.
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.
#6. 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 North Dakota!
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.
#7. Creeping Bellflower
- Campanula rapunculoides
Also known as Rampion Bellflower.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-7
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 12-31″ (30-80cm)
- Bloom Time: Summer to Early Fall
- Sun Exposure: Partial Shade
You will find this perennial in a variety of habitats, such as fields, dry hills, meadows, deciduous and pine forests, roadsides, and along railroads.
Creeping Bellflower is native to Europe and western Siberia, brought to North Dakota. Unfortunately, it has become an extremely invasive weed and chokes out other plants.
Trying to eliminate it is nearly impossible because of its ability to multiply on its own. Each plant can produce 15,000 seeds and reproduce through its long tuberous root system. 🙁
#8. Asiatic Dayflower
- Commelina communis
Also known as Dayflower.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 6-9
- Life Cycle: Annual
- Approximate mature size: 1-3′ (30-90 cm)
- Bloom Time: Summer through Fall
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Shade
This blue wildflower is usually found only in metro areas in North Dakota. However, it often ends up in your garden from purchased bags of soil.
This plant’s flowers bloom only for one day, hence its name “Dayflower.” The Asiatic Dayflower is a host plant for the Pearl Cresent butterfly caterpillars.
#9. 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.
#10. Azure Bluet
- Houstonia caerulea
Also known as Quaker Ladies and Bluets.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-9
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 2-4″ (5-10 cm)
- Bloom Time: Spring, Summer
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun, Partial Sun
This delicate blue wildflower is commonly found in North Dakota on moist sandy banks, rocky streamsides, open woods, forest edges, meadows, and lawns.
This easy-to-grow perennial is an excellent addition to your garden, and it will attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.
#11. Virginia Waterleaf
- Hydrophyllum virginianum
Also known as Eastern Waterleaf.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 4-8
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 1-2′ (30-60 cm)
- Bloom Time: Spring
- Sun Exposure: Shade, Partial Shade
The Virginia Waterleaf forms large groups in moist deciduous forests and spreads by reproducing along with underground roots (rhizomes).
This perennial attracts sweat bees and flies. But, unfortunately, their foliage is nibbled on by deer.
#12. Bottle Gentian
- Gentiana andrewsii
Also known as Closed Bottle Gentian and Closed Gentian.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-7
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 1-2′ (30-60 cm)
- Bloom Time: Summer, Fall
- Sun Exposure: Partial Sun
Look for this blue wildflower in prairies, along railroads, and in old fields in North Dakota.
You can grow the Bottle Gentian in your garden, but please do not dig it up from the wild.
This beautiful plant is known for its bottle-shaped flowers and always remains closed. One may wonder how they get pollinated? Bumblebees can force their way inside! Check out the video!
#13. Large-leaved Aster
- Eurybia macrophylla
Also known as Bigleaf Aster, Large-leaved Wood Aster, Aster roscidus, and Aster violaris.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: 3-8
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 1-5′ (30-150 cm)
- Bloom Time: Summer, Fall
- Sun Exposure: Partial Sun, Shade
This blue wildflower is found in North Dakota’s dry shade of deciduous forests.
You will notice their large, heart-shaped basal leaves, which are soft to the touch; their stalks are sticky.
This blue wildflower blooms for weeks, and the flowers are attractive to bees and butterflies.
#14. 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 North Dakota’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.
#15. Pasque flower
- Pulsatilla patens
Also known as Prairie Pasqueflower, Eastern Pasque Flower, Eastern Meadow Anemone, Eastern Prairie Smoke, American Pasqueflower, Prairie Crocus, and Windflower.
Growing Information
- USDA Hardiness Zone: All Life Zones
- Life Cycle: Perennial
- Approximate mature size: 4-10″ (10-25 cm)
- Bloom Time: Early Spring
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun
Please advise all parts of the Pasque Flower contain poisonous compounds, which can cause blisters in your nose and mouth. This is one wildflower you don’t want to sniff!
This blue-flowered perennial is found in dry soil such as prairies. It also has seed-like fruit with feathery, plume-like hairs that carry seeds away on the wind.
Do you need more help identifying blue wildflowers in North Dakota?
Check out this guide!
Which of these blue wildflowers have you seen before in North Dakota?
Leave a comment below!
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