Saturday, May 03, 2008

Hairy Phacelia

Hairy Phacelia (Phacelia hirsuta)


Other common names include Fuzzy Phacelia and Fuzzy Scorpion-Weed. It is a native annual. The USDA Distribution Map shows this wildflower growing in a cluster of six south-central states plus two counties in far eastern Pennsylvania. (I'd love to know the story behind the inclusion of two PA counties.)

Kansas Wildflowers says it can be found in: "Open sites, woodland edges, low bottom ground, and along ledges and ravines; sandy soil." The cluster of plants Jo found is in a small open area surrounded by woods on a rocky ledge. The soil is anything but sandy, though.

White flowers are rare according to Missouri Flora, but I'm not enough of a botanist to know if the flowers we found would be considered truly white or just a pale variation of blue. The cluster we found had white and blue flowered plants growing mixed together. (The ant was non-committal on the subject.)

Last year's post of the same flower found near, but not in the exact same location as this year's.


In the immortal words of Willie Nelson: We are On The Road Again.


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3 comments:

Tom said...

It looks a delicate little thing... I'm certainly learning by blogging.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

This is similar to the plant I posted yesterday.

Anonymous said...

How cool all the plants you find in your area! Thanks for sharing with us!