In the fall, the bluebonnets emerge as small seedlings with two cotyledons, and later a rosette of leaves that are palmately compound, with five to seven leaflets 3–10 cm long, green with a faint white edge and hair.

Growth continues over the mild winter, and then in the spring takes off, rapidly grow larger, before sending up a 20– to 50-cm-tall plume of blue flowers (with bits of white and occasionally a tinge of pinkish-red).

Bluebonnet seeds have a hard outer shell to protect from dry conditions as the plant grows better in moist years.

If scarified and stored at twenty-two degrees Celsius, the seeds face no reduction in germinability one year after being harvested and treated.

[5] It has been found in the wild with isolated mutations in other colors, most notably all-white flowers, pink, and the maroon 'Alamo Fire' variation.