What plant is that?

Click on photo below to view larger image

Photo Credit: © Francis R. Underwood 2012

This is a common plant of roadsides, fields, and rock crevices. It grows in almost any sandy soil low in nutrients.  The plant is an annual with alternate leaves. The flowers are light blue, five parted, and have two lips with a long spur at the base. The fruit is a capsule which contains many seeds. It blooms from May to September.  It can grow in very large colonies along the sides of our highways and makes a rather conspicuous and attractive display. The plant shown here was growing among the rocks above Black Point in Narragansett, RI.  This plant has recently been assigned to a new family and genus.

It’s. . .

Botanical Name:		Nuttallanthus canadensis
Common Name:		Blue Toadflax
Family:		Plantaginaceae (Plantain Family)
Habitat:		Poor, sandy soil along roadsides, railroads, and in fields