Have you seen this chicken flower?

[silversolitaire]

My dad saw fields after fields of these flowers today on his way back from work. He had never noticed them before so he brought one home for classification. None of us could figure out what this flower was. Any ideas?



Note, the color doesn't quite come out here. It's bright blue, leaning towards lilac.

The entire flower:


Close-up on the leaves:


The blossom is star shaped and open:


And the stems are quite exposed as well:


Any ideas?