Phacelia crenulata var. minutiflora

Cleftleaf wildheliotrope

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: annual · Native

Cleftleaf wildheliotrope is a California native annual found in the southern desert regions in sandy to gravelly washes and slopes at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces lavender to blue flowers with white throats, approximately 4 millimeters long. Growing 15 to 45 centimeters tall with stems densely covered in stiff hairs and becoming glandular toward the top, it has a distinctive hairy appearance. Its leaves are characterized by finely crenulated edges, contributing to its descriptive common name. The fruit is nearly spherical, about 3 millimeters in size, with seeds having a slightly corrugated or smooth margin.

Habitat: Sandy to gravelly washes, slopes

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: DSon

California counties: Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Inyo

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