Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Annual 10-50 cm tall from slender taproot, short-glandular-pubescent and hispid throughout, inflorescence most heavily glandular; stems branched from base, branches ascending to erect, forming a rounded clump.

Leaves: Oblong to ovate 3-9 cm long, 1.5-5 cm wide, pinnate or pinnatifid, divisions ovate to oblong, remote, toothed; petioles slender, usually distinctly shorter than blade.

Flowers: Scorpioid cyme, simple or few branched, lax, many flowered, branches 2-10 cm long, those erect in fruit; calyx lobes linear-oblanceolate with very narrow claw and dilate at apex, 4-7 mm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, enlarging to about 1 cm in fruit, densely hispid; corolla campanulate-funnelform, 4-7 mm long, 3-4 mm wide across limb, lobes lavender, 2-3 mm long, stamens 3-4 mm long, glabrous, corolla scales inserted in upper part of tube, adnate full length or with an acute free tip; style 3-4 mm long, hispid toward base, cleft to middle or slightly below.

Fruits: Globose capsule, about 2 mm long, hispid.

Ecology: Found on moist hillsides and canyons, along with arid slopes from 2,500-4,500 ft (762-1372 m); flowers April-June.

Distribution: NV, AZ, se CA

Notes: Often found under Quercus turbinella and other shrubs. Similar to P. distans but look at the hispid calyx with lobes contracted into long slender claws; lavender-purple corolla (vs. blue in P. distans); and corolla less than 7 mm wide at the top.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Phacelia from Greek phacelo- for bundl, while cryptantha is from the Greek krypsis, meaning hiding, suppression, concealment, thus a hidden flower.

Synonyms: Phacelia cryptantha var. derivata

Editor: SBuckley, 2010