If you’ve seen plants blooming right now with small blue flowers, they could be forget-me-nots. But, if they are taller they are probably Evergreen Bugloss as shown above. These plants originate from Europe, and maybe they are evergreen there but here they are just perennials according to this website.
Luckily some native insects appear to like them. According to Insects of the Pacific Northwest by Peter and Judy Haggard, the beetle shown above is a Pidonia Scripta which is a type of long-horned beetle. It likes flowers a lot as an adult, though as a larva it bores into wood.
It wasn’t the only beetle enjoying these plants. This black beetle was only a couple of plants over.
Oh man I was hoping “bugloss” was some sort of fancy lip gloss made from bug secretions… like beeswax or something.
Those are pretty blue flowers! The beetles do seem to like them – maybe they keep them away from other plants.
I wondered what those flowers were!
Hah! I’ve seen those tall blue plants, just thought it was a different type of forget-me-not. I actually think I might remember this unusual name — can’t wait to see some, so I can show off !