Page authors: Don Knoke, David Giblin
Phacelia heterophylla
varileaf phacelia, virgate phacelia
Specimens
Photos

Distribution: Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east to the Rocky Mountains.

Habitat: Widespread in dry, open places from the foothills to middle elevations in the mountains.

Flowers: May-July

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Biennial, Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Bumblebees, bees, butterflies, wasps, sawflies

Description:
General:

Biennial or short-lived perennial from a taproot, with a single, erect, stout stem 2-12 dm. tall, sometimes surrounded by several ascending, smaller stems; herbage often with spreading bristles and glandular hairs.

Leaves:

Leaves narrowly elliptic, pointed, with 1 or 2 pairs of small leaflets at the base of the blade; petioles, but not blades, reduced upward.

Flowers:

Inflorescence elongate, densely bristly, the lower flower clusters with leafy bracts; calyx divided nearly to the base, lobes 5; corolla dull white, 5-lobed, 3-6 mm. long and broad, the filaments conspicuously exerted, hairy near the middle; style 2-cleft.

Fruits:

Fruit a capsule.

Accepted Name:
Phacelia heterophylla Pursh
Publication: Fl. Amer. Sept. (Pursh) 1: 140. 1813.

Synonyms & Misapplications:
Phacelia heterophylla Pursh var. heterophylla [HC, HC2]
Phacelia heterophylla Pursh var. virgata (Greene) Dorn [HC2]
Additional Resources:

PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Phacelia heterophylla in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database

WA Flora Checklist: Phacelia heterophylla checklist entry

OregonFlora: Phacelia heterophylla information

E-Flora BC: Phacelia heterophylla atlas page

CalPhotos: Phacelia heterophylla photos

51 photographs:
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