Davidson's phacelia is a decumbent to erect annual growing to 5" or 6" high with puberulent to sparsely stiff-hairy stems and branchlets.  The leaves are elliptic to oblanceolate in overall outline, lower deeply lobed to compound and upper entire to lobed. The short-hairy, oblanceolate calyx lobes are 4-5mm, slightly larger in fruit. The corolla is rotate to bell-shaped, 7-15mm or larger, lobes blue to violet, tube and throat white. The entire corolla is sometimes white. The stamens are 3-6mm and the style 4-8mm, both short-hairy. The fruit is ovoid and puberulent with 7-15 seeds. Davidson's phacelia grows mostly in sandy to rocky soils in chaparral areas, foothill woodland and yellow pine forest to about 7500', ranging from the eastern Sierra Nevadas and Tehachapi Mts through the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges and blooming from April to June. These pictures were taken in the San Gabriels around Mt. Hillyer and along Santa Clara Divide Road.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Phacelia 2) davidsonii.
Pronunciation: fa-SEEL-ee-a day-vid-SONE-ee-eye.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.