Phacelia malvifolia

Stinging phacelia

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: annual · Native

Stinging phacelia is a California native annual found in coastal and mountain habitats at elevations up to 1,800 meters. Flowering from spring to summer, this plant produces cream-white flowers with widely bell-shaped corollas in small clusters, typically 3 to 7 millimeters long. Growing with erect stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall, densely covered in white to yellow stiff hairs that have distinctive bulb-based attachments. Its leaves are variable, ranging from 20 to 140 millimeters long, with lower leaves often deeply lobed or compound and having three segments that are irregularly toothed or divided. The plant produces small spherical fruits 2 to 3 millimeters in diameter, each containing up to 12 pitted seeds.

California counties: Monterey, Marin, San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, Alameda, Humboldt, San Benito, Del Norte, Sonoma

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