Phacelia marcescens

Marcescent phacelia

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: annual · Native

Marcescent phacelia is a California native annual found in northern and central Sierra Nevada in sandy to gravelly soils of meadows and conifer forest at elevations of 1,300 to 2,600 meters. Flowering from June to July, this plant produces purple to violet bell-shaped flowers 4 to 5 millimeters long with delicate petals. Growing 5 to 20 centimeters tall with erect stems that are short glandular-hairy and sometimes branched, it has an aromatic quality. Its leaves are elliptic to ovate, with proximal-most leaves up to 50 millimeters long, sometimes slightly lobed at the base and varying in size. The fruit is small, ovoid, and slightly compressed, bearing 1 to 2 pitted seeds.

Habitat: Sandy to gravelly soils, meadows, conifer forest

Bloom period: Jun-Jul

Elevation: 1300-2600 m

Bioregions: n&ampc SN.

California counties: Placer, Nevada, El Dorado, Yolo

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