Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Annual herbs, sometimes winter annuals germinating in autumn and maturing the following spring and summer, 10-60 cm tall (usually at least 30 cm tall); stems erect, rather stout, unbranched or sparingly branched, and densely covered with gland-tipped hairs and spreading non-glandular hairs.

Leaves: Alternate along the stems, the lower leaves on petioles and the upper leaves sessile or nearly so; blades oblong to ovate or lanceolate, 1-5 cm long, the margins lined with shallow lobes, surfaces finely glandular and covered with spreading, bristle-like hairs.

Flowers: Lavender and showy, arranged in scorpioid (curling) racemes; corollas tubular-campanulate, 5-7 mm long and about as wide, lavender to bluish, 5-lobed, the edges lines with small rounded teeth; stamens exserted 5-6 mm beyond the corolla.

Fruits: Capsules ovoid to globose, 3-5 mm long, pubescent; containing 4 seeds, these oblong to elliptic, 3 mm long, brown, with transverse ridges on the dorsal (outer) surface and lacking corregations on the ventral (inner) surface.

Ecology: Found in desert scrub and woodland communities in sandy, gypseous, or calcareous soils, from 3,000-7,500 ft (914-2286 m); flowers May-October.

Distribution: s UT, n AZ, NM, TX,OK, KS; south to MEX

Notes: This annual Phacelia has its center of distribuiton in NM, where it is found statewide. It is similar to P. crenulata, and indeed has at times been lumped in that taxon; distinguish it by its leaves which are only shallowly lobed around the edges (most varieties of P. crenulata have leaves deeply lobed more than halfway to the midrib, if not all the way to the midrib); seeds which mostly lack corregations on the ventral (inner) side; and lavender flowers (P. crenulata often has darker blue to purple flowers). There are 2 varieties of P. integrifolia: var. integrifolia has seeds which lack corregations on the ventral ridge and margins, and is commonly found in sandy soil; var. texana has seeds corregated on the ventral side near the apex of the seed, and grows on gypsum and calcareous soil. The genus Phacelia has at different times been placed in Hyrophyllaceae (the water-leaf family) and Boraginaceae (the borage family), so you may need to check both families before finding it in reference books and herbarium cabinets.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Phacelia is based on the Greek phakelos, meaning "cluster," alluding to the densely crowded flower spikes of most species of the genus; integrifolia comes from the Latin integer, whole or entire, and folia, leaf, referring to the leaves which are not deeply pinnatifid as in other Phacelia spp.

Editor: AHazelton 2017