I wanted to follow my post about a blue bird with blue wildflowers so here are some photos I took last week of Lewis’s Flax which are also known as Wild Blue Flax.
Blooming Lewis’s Flax with a tiny beetle
The wildflowers in some areas of northern Utah don’t seem to be doing as well this year as they have in previous years but I’ve still been trying to photograph them when I see them. Last week when I spotted these flax blooming in the West Desert mountains in Tooele County I decided to focus on them for a bit. While I photographed the Lewis’s Flax blossoms bouncing in the light breeze I also captured a tiny beetle on one of the flowers.
Click the images in the gallery below to view them larger.
I also was able to photograph a bee on one of the blooms. I believe it is a native bee but have no clue as to which species it is. While I enjoyed photographing the flax my mind went to our current conditions here in Utah and the western U.S..
It is extremely dry in the West Desert of Utah. It is drier than I have ever seen it and I can tell that some shrubs and trees are suffering from the prolonged drought. One of the Wax Currant bushes I normally see butterflies and hummingbirds getting nectar from in the mountains is dying. It tried to bloom but the flowers shriveled up before they fully opened and turned brown. Even the leaves of the currant are shriveling. I also saw a Western Chokecherry start to bloom and just a few days later before the flowers had opened they too turned brown and were falling off.
I notice the little things when I am in the field and while one Wax Currant or Western Chokecherry losing their flowers before they can be pollinated isn’t truly alarming it isn’t just them. I see other plants, flowers, shrubs, and trees struggling in the West Desert mountains, closer to home in the Wasatch Mountains and throughout all of northern Utah.
Everything in nature is connected and I am aware that when one part of it starts to fail or die other parts will follow.
Am I alarmed? Yes, I am.
Mia
Click here to see more of my wildflower photos along with shrubs and trees.
See what Utah’s Governor Spencer Cox is doing about our prolonged drought here. It isn’t enough. By the way our governor hasn’t implemented water restrictions or done anything meaningful or of any consequence regarding our prolonged drought conditions.
Here’s what the gov had to say: “I’ve already asked all Utahns to conserve water by avoiding long showers, fixing leaky faucets, and planting water-wise landscapes. But I fear those efforts alone won’t be enough to protect us,” Cox said. “We need more rain and we need it now. We need some divine intervention.”
I agree with the gov and Mia, it’s not enough; and his suggestion that everyone prey for rain won’t do it either. God does not control the weather
Oh Mia.
Drought is a truly dreadful scourge. My heart aches for all those affected.