Plant
Lewis’s Wild Flax
Linum lewisii
Photo: Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man), CC BY-SA 3.0
Common Names
Blue Flax / Prairie Flax
Habitat
High dry prairies and mountain slopes
First Observed
1806-07-09
Observed At
Near the Sun River, Lewis and Clark County, Montana
Lewis collected the first specimen of this wild flax on July 9, 1806, near the Sun River in Montana, during the expedition’s return journey. Frederick Pursh named the species in Lewis’s honor. The delicate blue flowers of Lewis’s wild flax bloom across the western prairies and mountains. Native peoples used the plant’s fibers for cordage.
Journal Excerpt
Lewis, July 9, 1806: "I also met with a species of flax new to me; it has a very strong scent and a deep blue flower, and is found on the high dry prairies."
Journal References
6 journal entries mention Lewis’s Wild Flax
Jul
13
1804
Clark: July 13, 1804
...o the left. Containg a grass resmlg Timothy, with Seed like flax,
(2) passed a Island in a bend to the S. S. at 12 ms. I walked on Shore S.
S. lands, low & overfl...
Aug
17
1804
Clark: August 17, 1804
... Seed of
which branches from the main Stalk & is more like flax Seed than that
of a Timothey
at 6 oClock this evening Labieche one of the Party Sent to the Ottoes...
Jul
18
1805
Lewis: July 18, 1805
...John Ordway. I have observed
for several days a species of flax growing in the river bottoms the leaf
stem and pericarp of which resembles the common flax cultiva...
Jul
23
1805
Lewis: July 23, 1805
...strong tough and
disagreeable. found some seed of the wild flax ripe which I preserved;
this plant grows in great abundance in these bottoms. I halted rearther
e...
Jul
31
1805
Lewis: July 31, 1805
...s are
covered with fine grass, tanzy, thistles, onions and flax. the bottom land
fertile and of a black rich loam. the uplands poor sterile and of a light
yellow...
Aug
8
1805
Lewis: August 8, 1805
...ntity of the buffaloe clover in the bottoms. the sunflower, flax, green
swoard, thistle and several species of the rye grass some of which rise to
the hight of 3 ...
