Identification
This planted perennial grows up to 8 inches tall. This is one of our first flowers to bloom in the spring each year. Plants have long, thin, succulent leaves and purple flower stalks with one or two elegant, bright blue, nodding flowers with 6 petals.
Thriving where it was planted long ago flowering from the last days of March to early April. In Fontenlle Forest, locally common along History Trail near the abandoned Baldwin homestead. In 2024 a few plants, presumably surviving from the previous garden, were found at the site of the recently demolished Jonas House at Neale Woods (photo D).
This popular garden flower was introduced from Russia and usually thrives where it has been planted. It often escapes from cultivation spreading to adjacent sites including native woodlands as it has at the old Baldwin homesite in Fontenelle Forest’s south uplands. When all the old kitchen utensils have rusted away (C), this wildflower will likely continue to emerge each year as the only sign of habitation there long, long ago.
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