Wild Blue Flax + Dakota Skipper Butterfly

When I think of wild blue flax, I picture it swaying to the prairie breeze in open fields. It’s a fiber plant (like its domesticated cousin) – useful for fabric, nets, cordage, baskets, and more. It produces multitudes of bright sky-blue flowers that open in the early morning from May to July. It grows in dry, open places such as up-land prairie, road ditches, and railway right-of-ways. It stands 12-24 inches tall, and a field of flax is like a floral river

Flax is partnered with the Dakota Skipper butterfly. From the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: “The Dakota skipper is a small butterfly that lives in high-quality mixed and tallgrass prairie. The species experienced a decline coinciding with the conversion and degradation of its prairie habitat and was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2014, and critical habitat was designated. The Dakota skipper lost 85 to 99% of its original tallgrass prairie in their historical range that once included Illinois and Iowa and now occurs in remnants of native mixed and tallgrass prairie in Minnesota, the Dakotas and southern Canada. Dakota skippers may survive in areas where lands have some grazing or haying, and in fact, they are dependent on habitat that experiences periodic disturbance; however, Dakota skippers disappear when these disturbances become too intense.”

Original mixed media on raw stretched canvas with maple float frame.