Hi. I'm trying to identify a really pretty, yet humble flower that's recently appeared in vast numbers along highways and roadsides here in Massachusetts. I hope the pictures help but I'll describe them as well: From a distance, the flower looks almost like a chive -- a single stalk with a cluster of fine blueish threads at the end. It's so numerous that certain patches of the median strip turn blue...almost like a blue fog is covering the six inches above the grass. It's beautiful. On closer inspection, it's actually several stalks on a fairly woody, non-thorny base, with sparse sets of alternating, tiny leaves. It is not a clover, despite superficial resemblance to the flower. This flower (the picture doesn't really show it clearly) is about clover-size, but is just blue hairs extending outward and tiny white star-shaped sections inside. The tips of the blue hairs are covered with darker purple dust...presumably pollen. It is not, as near as I can tell, a kind of thistle -- it is not thorny, does not have any kind of fibers or hairs, and does not have the telltale bulb behind the flower the way the thistle does. This is just a blue puffball at the end of a stalk. I hope the pictures help. Apologies that they're turned on their side. There's some white yarrow in the vase as well, but the flower's leaves are the one with my finger near them. They're tiny...and the stalk rises up for 6 inches or so without any leaves before the bloom. I didn't find this in Newcomb's Wildflower Guide. Would love some help identifying it. Thanks to anyone for any tips, hints, or (best) a positive ID. :-)
