Phacelia calthifolia

Caltha leafed phacelia

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: annual · Native

Caltha leafed phacelia is a California native annual found in the Mojave Desert in sandy creosote-bush scrub soils at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces violet to purple flowers 8 to 12 millimeters long in delicate funnel-shaped blooms. Growing with spreading to erect stems 10 to 30 centimeters tall, it has a fleshy and somewhat brittle structure covered in dark glandular hairs. Its leaves are approximately round, 10 to 35 millimeters long, with entire to slightly scalloped edges and a lobed base. The fruit is a small spherical capsule 4 to 5 millimeters long, containing 30 to 50 tiny seeds with shallow cross-furrows.

Habitat: Sandy soils, generally in creosote-bush scrub

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: DMoj

California counties: Inyo, San Bernardino, Kern

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