prairie bluebells, Mertensia lanceolata

This image of prairie bluebells was taken at about 9000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains. As William Weber says in Rocky Mountain Flora, this is "a quite complex and variable species separable into alpine and lowland, pubescent to glabrous, broad and narrow leaved races, all evidently merging and recombining in puzzling ways". All beautiful in any case. These plants, in various treatments and classifications grow in CO, MT, ND, NE, NM, SD, UT, WY, AB, MB, and SK. Clear Creek Co CO, 6/18/13. Borage family, Boraginaceae.