Phacelia sericea | |
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P. sericea ssp. sericea | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Boraginales |
Family: | Boraginaceae |
Genus: | Phacelia |
Species: | P. sericea |
Binomial name | |
Phacelia sericea | |
Subspecies | |
P. sericea ssp. ciliosa (Rydb.) Gillett Contents |
Phacelia sericea, the silky phacelia, blue alpine phacelia, or purple fringe, is a showy perennial species of Phacelia endemic to western North America. [2] It grows mainly at subalpine to alpine elevations in forest openings or above treeline among rocks and sand. [3] [4] Sericea comes from the Latin sericeus, or silky, referring to the fine hairs on the leaves and stem.
Phacelia sericea consists of several upright or ascending stems to 0.6 metres (2 ft 0 in) from a tap-rooted, branched woody base. Its leaves are pinnatifid with cleft or entire segments. The basal leaves are somewhat larger than the upper cauline leaves and are more persistent and petiolate. The leaves and stems are generally covered with silvery silky hairs but are scarcely glandular.
The inflorescence consists of several short panicles, tightly packed, at the end of the stem, resembling a bottle-brush. The dark blue to purple bell-shaped corolla is 4–6 millimetres (0.16–0.24 in) across. It is hairy inside and out but not glandular. The filaments are two to three times as long as the corolla and give the inflorescence a fuzzy appearance. The anthers are bright yellow or orange and the style is shortly cleft. The fruit consists of two-chambered capsules with 8 to 18 seeds. [2] [5]
Phacelia sericea is a subalpine to alpine species of open well-drained slopes, usually above 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) elevation, it is found in the mountains of Vancouver Island, the southern British Columbia Pacific Ranges, the Rocky Mountains from Banff National Park to southern Colorado, Olympic National Park, the Cascade Range of Washington, the mountains of eastern Oregon and the northernmost counties of California, and the mountains of Idaho, Nevada and Utah. [6] It generally blooms from near the end of May through the end of August. [6]
Two subspecies are recognized.
Where the ranges overlap, P. sericea ssp. ciliosa occurs at a lower elevation than ssp. sericea. These are listed as subspecies by the USDA PLANTS database and ITIS, and as varieties by Jepson and Hitchcock. [2] [7]
Phacelia sericea is listed by the Federal Highway Administration as a native species suitable for landscaping along roadsides in Colorado. [8] It should be handled with care as the long flower hairs have been reported to irritate skin. [9]
Eriophyllum lanatum, with the common names common woolly sunflower, Oregon sunshine and golden yarrow, is a common, widespread, North American plant in the family Asteraceae.
Phacelia crenulata is a species of flowering plant in the waterleaf family, Hydrophyllaceae. Its common names include notch-leaf scorpion-weed, notch-leaved phacelia, cleftleaf wildheliotrope, and heliotrope phacelia. Phacelia crenulata has an antitropical distribution, a type of disjunct distribution where a species exists at comparable latitudes on opposite sides of the equator, but not at the tropics. In North America, it is native to the southwestern United States as far east as Colorado and New Mexico, and Baja California and Sonora in Mexico. In South America, it is native to southern Peru, western Bolivia, and northern Chile.
Phacelia fremontii is a flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae native to the southwestern United States. In California, its range includes the Mojave Desert, the San Joaquin Valley, the Coast Ranges, and the Sierra Nevada. It was named for John C. Frémont.
Phacelia minor, with the common names Whitlavia and wild Canterbury bells, is a species of phacelia. It is native to Southern California and Baja California, where it grows in the Colorado Desert and the coastal and inland mountains of the Transverse-Peninsular Ranges, often in chaparral and areas recently burned.
Phacelia campanularia is a species of flowering plant in the borage family, Boraginaceae, known by the common names desertbells, desert bluebells, California-bluebell, desert scorpionweed, and desert Canterbury bells. Its true native range is within the borders of California, in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, but it is commonly cultivated as an ornamental plant and it can be found growing elsewhere as an introduced species.
Delphinium patens is a species of larkspur known by the common names zigzag larkspur and spreading larkspur. It is a wildflower limited mainly to California. Though not yet confirmed there, it is expected in Baja California. Plants grow typically 20 to 50 centimeters tall and bear up to 36 flowers each. The stems are mostly hairless, have reddish bases, and bears leaves on the lower half. Each leaf is divided into 3 to 9 lobes. The flower has dark blue sepals, the latter ones reflexed. The spur at the back of the flower is 4 to 8 millimeters long. The cleft at the center of the flower has white or yellowish scattered hairs. The elongated fruit is one or two centimeters long and contains pitted seeds.
Hulsea algida is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family, known by the common name Pacific hulsea or alpine gold. It is native to the western United States.
Brodiaea coronaria is the type species of Brodiaea and also known by the common names harvest brodiaea and crown brodiaea. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to northern California, where it grows in mountains and grasslands.
Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus is an American species of shrub in the family Asteraceae known by the common names yellow rabbitbrush and green rabbitbrush.
Ribes lobbii is a shrubby, deciduous, shade-intolerant perennial dicot found on the western coast of North America. It was first described in 1876 by Asa Gray. The specific epithet was a dedication to the English plant collector William Lobb.
Phacelia brachyloba is a species of phacelia known by the common name shortlobe phacelia. It is native to southern California and Baja California, where it grows in the coastal mountains, canyons, and valleys. It is one of the many species known as fire followers, that emerge in areas recently burned.
Phacelia gymnoclada is a species of phacelia known by the common name nakedstem phacelia. It is native to the western Great Basin of the United States, where it can be found in the scrublands of Nevada, Oregon, and the eastern edge of California.
Phacelia hastata is a species of flowering plant in the borage family, Boraginaceae. Its common names include silverleaf scorpionweed, silverleaf phacelia, and white-leaf phacelia. It is native to western North America from British Columbia and Alberta south to California and east to Nebraska. It can be found in many types of habitat, including scrub, woodland, and forest, up to an elevation of 13,000 feet. It prefers sandy to rocky soil.
Phacelia linearis, the linear-leaved phacelia or threadleaf phacelia, is a species of phacelia.
Phlox diffusa is a species of phlox known by the common name spreading phlox. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to the southwestern United States to the Dakotas, where it grows in many types of habitat, including rocky, high elevation mountain slopes. It is a very compact mat-forming perennial herb growing in cushions or patches of short, decumbent stems. The linear, lance-shaped, or needle-like leaves are no more than 1.5 centimeters long and are oppositely arranged in bundles on the short stems. The inflorescence is a solitary tubular flower around a centimeter long. It has a flat white or pale pink or blue corolla with five lobes each just under a centimeter in length.
Ribes montigenum is a species of currant known by the common names mountain gooseberry, alpine prickly currant, western prickly gooseberry, and gooseberry currant. It is native to western North America from Washington south to California and east as far as the Rocky Mountains, where it grows in high mountain habitat types in subalpine and alpine climates, such as forests and talus. It is a spreading shrub growing up to 1.5 meters tall, the branching stems covered in prickles and hairs and bearing 1 to 5 sharp spines at intervals.
Silene suksdorfii is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names Suksdorf's silene, Suksdorf's catchfly and Cascade alpine campion. It is native to the Pacific Northwest of the United States, where it occurs from Washington and Idaho to northern California. It is mainly an alpine species, growing in the talus of high mountain slopes. It can also be found below the tree line in forested subalpine habitat. It is a squat perennial herb producing several erect stems from a leafy, woody caudex. It generally takes a clumpy form. The stems grow up to 10 or 15 centimeters tall and are hairy in texture, with glandular, sticky areas on the upper parts. The leaves occur in tufts around the caudex. They are fleshy and coated in soft hairs. Solitary flowers arise on erect peduncles. Each is encapsulated in an inflated calyx of fused sepals, which is starkly purple-veined and has purplish glandular hairs. The petals are white or purple-tinged and have two lobes at their tips and appendages at their bases.
Deinandra minthornii — — is a rare California species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Santa Susana tarplant, or Santa Susana tarweed. It is listed as a rare species by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and on the California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants of California.
Castilleja rhexiifolia, commonly called rosy paintbrush, subalpine paintbrush, or rhexia-leaved paintbrush, is a species of plant in Orobanchaceae, commonly known as the broomrape family. They are a common flower found in moist habitats near or above timberline in the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest. Like most members of the Castilleja genus, they are partially parasitic plants.