The wildflowers here in the foothills outside Boise have been pretty spectacular this spring.

One of my favorite wildflowers — wild flax — has started blooming:

Wild flax is amazing because it is blue, and I have a perpetual hard on for all blue flowers, like these alpine forget-me-nots. It is also amazing because it is one of many species first described by Meriwether Lewis on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Lupine, and other flowering members of the pea family, are also particular favorites of mine, mostly because so many of them are blue, as I love blue flowers with 100% of my heart. Longspur lupine has been everywhere the past few weeks:

It is not blue. It does however smell amazing.  Also, the two-tone thing is pretty boss. It’s almost like being blue.

Cornflowers are starting to peep up one by one in mass numbers. By June, they’ll be turning everything into a wash of indigo. They are technically an invasive species. But apparently, they aren’t causing harm. So people have let them do what they want, which is mostly to go and be everywhere:

They are pretty blue. Sometimes there is a pink or purple one that ruins it.

I’ve seen about half a dozen species of wild lily, including the large-flowered triplet-lily (it is totally blue) and Aase’s onion, a rare species found only in a few areas near Boise:

The fact that it is so rare is sort of like its replacement for being blue.