Phacelia arizonica A. Gray
Family: Hydrophyllaceae
Arizona phacelia,  more...
[Phacelia popei var. arizonica (A. Gray) J. Voss]
Phacelia arizonica image
Wiggins 1964

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Annual with several procumbent to ascending stems 5-30 cm long, villous and hirsutulous, inflorescence somewhat glandular.

Leaves: Ovate, oblong, to oblong-oblanceolate in outline, 8-20 mm wide, 3-8 cm long, pinnatifid, lobes entire, dentate or again pinnatifid, mostly obtuse.

Flowers: Slender petioles 5-18 mm long, compact cyme, usually branched 1-3 cm long in flower, erect and to 10 cm in fruit; slender pedicel, 1 mm long at anthesis to 4 mm long and ascending in fruit, calyx lobes lance-elliptic 2 mm long at anthesis, 4 mm in fruit; campanulate corolla 4-5 mm, white to pale lavender.

Fruits: Globose capsule 3 mm in diameter sparsely hirsutulous.

Ecology: Found on rocky hillsides, plains, and mesas; 1,500-5,000 ft (457-1524 m); flowers February-May.

Distribution: se AZ, sw NM; south to n MEX.

Notes: Endemic to se AZ and sw NM. Phacelias are often hairy all over with pinnate leaves and most have a inflorescence curled like a scorpions tail (scorpoid cyme). They are notoriously difficult, make sure you have leaves, flowers and mature fruits to correctly identify most species. This species though, fairly distinct by its prostrate-decumbent habit; leaves deeply pinnately lobed and not reaching the inflorescence, most of them basal, the ones on stems reduced; the inflorescence shorter than many species; and a white to pale bluish, bell-shaped corolla(not funnleform).

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Phacelia from Greek phacelo- for bundle; arizonica for Arizona.

Synonyms: Phacelia popei var. arizonica

Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015