Single Record

Counties: Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, Archuleta

PhotoRecords: YES Rich Haswell: Hinsdale Co, North Clear Creek Falls 22 June 2017

Comments: Blue flax has been often recorded from both sides of the Watershed, from basin all the way up to alpine. Its usual habitat is montane grassland. It is frequently seen along road-side embankments. Linum lewisii is present in nearly every county west of the Great Plains (but not the Cascades of Washington and Oregon), with scattered locations in the Great Plains and a relict population in eastern West Virginia. It is present in the Rio Grande drainage through New Mexico to Val Verde Co, Texas. In the Watershed, Linum lewisii is the only native blue flax with stamens and styles more or less of equal length (homostylous). It can be confused with the introduced L. perenne, and many records determined as L. perenne are actually L. lewisii var. lewisii. Another introduced blue flax, L. usitatissimum (from which linseed oil is made), on occasion shows up in commercial seed packets, but in the Watershed we have seen it only in gardens, not escaped. For more photographs and comment, click "yes" in the Annotation field below.