Phacelia ramosissima

Branching phacelia

Family: Hydrophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 3.2

Branching phacelia is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, the high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, central and southwestern California, Warner Mountains, eastern Sierra Nevada, and northern desert mountains in diverse habitats including sand dunes, salt marshes, coastal bluffs, canyons, and conifer forests at elevations up to 3,800 meters. Flowering from April to October, this plant produces white to lavender to blue flowers 5 to 8 millimeters long in delicate clusters. Growing with prostrate to ascending stems 30 to 150 centimeters tall that are many-branched and either glabrous or densely hairy, it forms an intricately structured plant. Its compound leaves have blades 40 to 200 millimeters long with elliptic to oblong leaflets that are coarsely toothed or lobed. The fruit is a small 3 to 4 millimeter ovoid structure covered in stiff hairs.

Habitat: Diverse habitats, including sand dunes, salt marshes, coastal bluffs, canyons, washes, flats, meadows, conifer forest

Bloom period: Apr-Oct

Elevation: < 3800 m

Bioregions: NW (exc NCoRO), CaRH, SN, CW, SW (exc s ChI), Wrn, SNE, n DMtns

California counties: Kern, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Inyo, Tulare, Ventura, Fresno, Orange, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Mono, Marin, Modoc, Sierra, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda, Plumas, Mariposa, El Dorado, Nevada, Lassen, Tuolumne, Monterey, Placer, Siskiyou, San Francisco, Alpine, Santa Cruz, Trinity, Lake

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