Blue & Purple Flowers

Plants with Blue or Purple Flowers

Plants with blue or purple flowers are not particularly common in our area compared with other color groups, but there's certainly enough to cause a bit of head-scratching from time to time. Some classic plants in this group include the speedwells, members of the mint family, violets, crane's-bills and the thistles.

If you are struggling to identify a blue flower, it is always worth bearing in mind that white color forms of normally blue or purple-flowered species occur from time to time and can cause a little confusion.

Within the color sections, the pictures are grouped so that similar-looking (though not necessarily closely-related) plants will be near each other. This should help to reduce your search time. Also, in cases where there are a number of very similar species, a representative species is shown here, but clicking on it will take you to a page that tells you how to tell the more difficult species apart.

If you still can't find your plant, you either have something very interesting that you may wish to tell us about, or we just haven't got a picture of it yet - we're still working on the latter!!

Click on the pictures below to go to the species pages.

Three Petals


Asiatic Day-flower	irises	spiderworts

Four Petals


speedwells	bluets

Five Petals


crane's-bills	periwinkles	Clasping Venus's Looking-glass	gentians

Carolina Sea-lavender	vervains	Common Cornsalad	forget-me-nots

larkspurs	violets	pansies	bluecurls

lobelias	Carolina Horsenettle	Bittersweet	columbines

Love-in-a-mist	Common Flax

Six Petals


Spring Starflower	Crocuses	Narrow-leaved Blue-eyed-grass	Glory-of-the-snow

Large Lilyturf	irises	Spring Crocus	Common Hyacinth

More Than Six Petals

Purple Pasionflower

Many-rayed Flowers


asters	Chicory

Tubular Flowers (petals fused into a tube-like form)


Compact Grape-hyacinth	mint family	mint family	lobelias

Japanese Mazus

vetches	Canadian Toadflax	Apple-of-Peru	morning-glories

Common Thorn-apple	gentians	gentians	Spring Crocus

Many-flowered Heads


Rattlesnake-master	thistles	Compact Grape-hyacinth	Common Cornflower

Blue Mistflower	Canadian Toadflax	Wild Bergamot	Lucerne

Carolina Sea-lavender	Common Cornsalad	vervains	forget-me-nots

lupines	vetches	larkspurs	Pickerelweed

mint family	Common Hyacinth	bluebells	Large Lilyturf