Phacelia arizonica

Wiggins 1964

Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Annual with several procumbent to ascending stems 5-30 cm long, villous and hirsutulous, inflorescence somewhat glandular. Leaves: Ovate, oblong, to oblong-oblanceolate in outline, 8-20 mm wide, 3-8 cm long, pinnatifid, lobes entire, dentate or again pinnatifid, mostly obtuse. Flowers: Slender petioles 5-18 mm long, compact cyme, usually branched 1-3 cm long in flower, erect and to 10 cm in fruit; slender pedicel, 1 mm long at anthesis to 4 mm long and ascending in fruit, calyx lobes lance-elliptic 2 mm long at anthesis, 4 mm in fruit; campanulate corolla 4-5 mm, white to pale lavender. Fruits: Globose capsule 3 mm in diameter sparsely hirsutulous. Ecology: Found on rocky hillsides, plains, and mesas; 1,500-5,000 ft (457-1524 m); flowers February-May. Distribution: se AZ, sw NM; south to n MEX. Notes: Endemic to se AZ and sw NM. Phacelias are often hairy all over with pinnate leaves and most have a inflorescence curled like a scorpions tail (scorpoid cyme). They are notoriously difficult, make sure you have leaves, flowers and mature fruits to correctly identify most species. This species though, fairly distinct by its prostrate-decumbent habit; leaves deeply pinnately lobed and not reaching the inflorescence, most of them basal, the ones on stems reduced; the inflorescence shorter than many species; and a white to pale bluish, bell-shaped corolla(not funnleform). Ethnobotany: Unknown Etymology: Phacelia from Greek phacelo- for bundle; arizonica for Arizona. Synonyms: Phacelia popei var. arizonica Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015