WATERLEAF FAMILY HYDROPHYLLACEAE 
PURSH’S PHACELIA 
Phacelia Purshii Buckley 
Pursh’s Phacelia is not very common but in favorable years 
is abundant locally. It grows in moist woods and thickets or in 
open places from Pennsylvania to Minnesota and south to 
North Carolina and Mississippi. It is 
usually much branched and grows 6-12 
inches high. Leaves are similar to those 
shown but the lower are petioled. 
The delicate light blue flowers of 
this plant make a pleasant addition to 
the annual flower garden. They bloom 
from April to June in quite strongly 
1-sided clusters. The calyx is deeply 
parted into 5 narrow segments. To the 
base of the light blue to white corolla — 
and alternating with its fringed lobes 
are attached the 5 stamens. The fruit 
is a capsule containing usually 4 seeds. 
In the southern part of the state the 
Loose-flowered Phacelia, Phacelia bi- 
pinnatifida Michx., is not uncommon. Its 
home is rich shaded banks, where it may 
be found blooming in May and June. 
The flower clusters are not 1-sided and 
the lobes of the bright blue corolla are 
not fringed, but there are 5 pairs of ap- 
pendages on the inner side of the corolla 
tube between the stamens. The filaments 
are bearded and the anthers extend from 
the flower. There are 2 ovules on each of 
the 2 placentas and consequently 4 seeds 
in the globose capsule. This Phacelia may 
have flowers varying to deep purple, and 
their abundant bloom enlivens many moist 
thickets from North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri, south to Alabama. 
The Small-flowered Phacelia, Phacelia dubia (L.) Small, is known 
from New York to Kansas, south to Georgia and Texas. It is a some- 
what hairy, slender annual which branches from the base and is 5-12 
inches high. The solitary racemes are loosely 5-15-flowered. The 
bluish white flowers are on threadlike pedicels that are generally 
longer than the oblong calyx lobes, and the barely exserted anthers 
are on slightly hairy filaments. It is abundant on moist shaded 
ground in certain parts of southern Illinois. 
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