Lewis's Flax in shade, Little Emigration Canyon, Summit County, UtahLewis’s Flax in shade – Nikon D500, f14, 1/640, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Everywhere I go in the lower elevations of northern Utah I can see wildflowers blooming now. The wildflowers excite me because prior to me becoming so passionate about photographing birds and before I had camera equipment capable of taking images of my feathered friends my passions involved photographing flowers.  My point and shoot cameras were great with flowers and so is the gear I use for photographing birds.

Not far from where I live I saw the first of the Lewis’s Flax blooming early last week and it made me think of the flax I photographed last year in the Wasatch Mountains. Wildflowers bloom a little later the higher you go in elevation. People also call Lewis’s Flax the names Wild Blue Flax, Prairie Flax, Lewis Flax, and Lewis’ Blue Flax.

It is not known if it was Meriwether Lewis or William Clark who collected the first specimen of this lovely blue wildflower but it was named after Lewis.  I found some interesting information about this wildflower on the Montana.GOV site that some of you may be interested in because it goes into detail about Lewis & Clark and how the plant got its name with some information about their expedition during the time period when they found this wildflower.

This photo was taken last June in the Wasatch Mountains.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my wildflower photos along with shrubs and trees.