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| Phacelia distans |
| Family: Boraginaceae (Borage) |
| Flowers — color: blue, size: 3/8", type: 5 petals |
The Distant Phacelia flower has five petals, flat or cup-shaped, about 3/8" diameter. In BMER, the petals blue to violet with lighter web traces, but other regions have light blue or lavender colors. Five blue stamens with blue anthers extend from the shallow throat of the flower.
The flower cluster resembles a furry green caterpillar. It is a linear array where buds attach directly to the stem and the growing tip curls sharply. Botanists call this form a helicoid cyme, and it is typical for the Borage family [for example branching phacelia]. The curl has inspired the scorpion-weed nickname, after the arachnid's tail.
Habit:
Distant Phacelia is an annual with variable habit. It may be a single stem several inches high, a spreading mat, or a branching mound, all in the same field. The stem has both stiff and glandular hairs for climbing its neighbors. It seems to love to form colonies on the shrubs near a grassy field. The compound, fern-like leaf is doubly pinnate — the central rib holds several leaflets in rough opposition, then ends with a large terminal leaflet. Furthermore, each leaflet is notched, but not as much as branching phacelia.
The spreading display of blue flowers resembles fiesta flower, also in the Borage family. Some references apply the common name 'Wild Heliotrope' to Phacelia distans, but may belong more strongly to Heliotropium curassavicum.