On a beautiful Texas Sunday morning I was hiking at Inks Lake State Park and found this lovely blue and yellow flower. It’s common name is Widow’s Tears or Dayflower (Commelina erecta) and can be identified by the three blue petals with yellow at the center. I found it scattered in an open field near the trail with butterflies and bees flying around the flowers. This leads me to the conclusion that it is an important pollinator wildflower and could be used in pollinator gardens to attract butterflies, bees, and birds. Pollinator gardens are a focus for urban ecology because many of the important pollinators are disappearing due to humans activity according to the Xerces Society. If you are interested in planting a pollinator garden in your community see here.
My iNaturalist post can be found here.