Anchusa azurea

Garden alkanet, Garden Alkanet

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Garden alkanet is a naturalized perennial found in northern Sierra Nevada Foothills, southern Central Coast, and San Francisco Bay Area in open sites and disturbed areas at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces striking blue flowers with white appendages, creating a vivid display approximately 12 to 20 millimeters in diameter. Growing with robust stems 50 to 80 centimeters tall, it develops an upright, branching habit with grayish-green foliage. Its upper leaves are particularly distinctive, measuring 5 to 15 millimeters wide, with a lance-like shape that complements the plant's overall structure. The flower's salverform corolla tube stands 6 to 10 millimeters long, with linear calyx lobes that enlarge to 8 to 12 millimeters when fruiting.

Habitat: Open sites, disturbed areas

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: n SNF, s CCo, SnFrB

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.