Phacelia douglasii

Douglas' phacelia

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: annual · Native

Douglas' phacelia is a California native annual herb found in southern Sierra Nevada foothills, Tehama County, southern Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, Central Western California, southern California coast, southern Channel Islands, western Transverse Ranges, San Gabriel Mountains, and western Mojave Desert in open, generally sandy areas at elevations below 1,700 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces light blue to purple flowers in widely bell-shaped corollas 6 to 12 millimeters long with limbs 8 to 20 millimeters in diameter. Growing with spreading to erect stems 6 to 40 centimeters tall that are branched at the base and covered in short hairs, it has a delicate, open structure. Its leaves are deeply lobed to compound, measuring 5 to 80 millimeters long, with oblanceolate to ovate blades featuring rounded to obtuse segments. The fruit is a small, short-hairy ovoid structure 5 to 7 millimeters long containing 8 to 20 tiny pitted seeds.

Habitat: Open, generally sandy areas

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1700 m

Bioregions: s SNF, Teh, s ScV, SnJV, CW, SCo, s ChI, WTR, SnGb, w DMoj.

California counties: Kern, Los Angeles, Ventura, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, Santa Cruz, Fresno, San Francisco, Contra Costa, San Bernardino, Alameda, Riverside, Orange, San Diego, San Benito, Merced, Madera, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Kings, Sutter, Inyo, Santa Clara

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