Phacelia mutabilis

Changeable phacelia

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Changeable phacelia is a California native perennial herb found in the Klamath Ranges, northern coastal California, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, San Jacinto Mountains, and Modoc Plateau in open forest and roadside habitats at elevations of 900 to 3,500 meters. Flowering from May to October, this plant produces white to lavender flowers 4 to 6 millimeters long with a tubular to bell-shaped corolla. Growing 10 to 60 centimeters tall with decumbent to erect stems that are sparsely long and stiff-hairy, it develops a distinctive growth pattern. Its mostly basal leaves range from 20 to 180 millimeters long, typically lanceolate to ovate, and may be entire or have three segments with the terminal segment being the largest. The fruit is a small 2 to 3 millimeter ovoid structure covered in stiff hairs, containing 1 to 4 pitted seeds.

Habitat: Roadsides, ridges, open forest

Bloom period: May-Oct

Elevation: 900-3500 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaRH, SNH, SnJt, MP

California counties: Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Modoc, Riverside, Butte, Sierra, Siskiyou, Humboldt, Plumas, Placer, Tuolumne, Trinity, Mariposa, Amador, Shasta, Tehama, Lake, Calaveras, Lassen, Nevada, Kern, Mono, San Bernardino, El Dorado, Los Angeles, Mendocino, Colusa, Glenn, Alameda, Napa, Santa Cruz, Inyo, Del Norte, Ventura

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