Boraginaceae

This is one of the earliest blooming wildflowers, along with biscuitroot, buttercup, and yellow bells. Bluebells grow most frequently beneath sagebrush canopies and in other sheltered sites and on north-facing slopes. It is common in areas of abundant spring moisture.

Puccoon is common in the shrub-steppe, and is easily identified by a cluster of multiple long, leafy stems, eight inches to two feet tall, springing up from a woody tap root. The small, pale yellow-to greenish-white flowers of puccoon appear in late spring, partially hidden among the numerous leaves near the stem tip.

Sagebrush stickseed flowers are white and showy but tiny, less than half an inch wide, and the simple petals look just like a child would draw a basic flower. The leaves are coarse, hairy, and rather short, two to seven inches long, with a cluster at the base and smaller leaves going up the stems.

Bugloss fiddleneck is a weedy plant that thrives on disturbed soil. The small yellow tubular-shaped flowers occur along multiple stems up to two feet tall that coil distinctively like the neck of a fiddle. The plant is very hairy and looks like it is covered in fat green hairy caterpillars.