Phacelia incana A. Brand 

 Hoary phacelia 



A. DESCRIPTION 



1. General description: P. incana is a minute annual member of 

 the Hydrophyllaceae (water-leaf family) . Its leaves are 

 elliptical to egg shaped and have petioles about as long as 

 the blades. The very inconspicuous flower has a 5 lobed fused 

 white corolla which is barely longer than the 5 narrow green 

 calyx lobes. There are 5 stamens and a single style. The 

 plant is covered by hairs which are mostly distinctly 

 glandular tipped. See slide 15 in Appendix E. 



2. Technical species description (quoted from Cronquist et al. 

 1984) : 



Branching, more or less erect annual up to 1.5 dm tall, 

 softly spreading-hairy throughout, many of the hairs 

 evidently gland-tipped; leaves chiefly cauline, evidently 

 petiolate, at least the lower petioles longer than the 

 blade; blades elliptic to nearly ovate, entire, 3-15 mm 

 long and 2-10 mm wide; naked, helicoid cymes mostly 

 terminal, appearing leaf-opposed, mostly relatively lax 

 and elongate, rather few-flowered; pedicels 0.5-2 mm long 

 at anthesis, up to about 5 mm in fruit, seldom longer"; 

 calyx 3-4.5 mm long at anthesis, up to 6 or 7 mm in 

 fruit, its segments narrow, linear or linear-lanceolate, 

 slightly or scarcely dissimilar; corolla small and 

 inconspicuous, about equalling the calyx, tubular- 

 campanulate, 3.5-4.5 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, the tube white 

 or yellowish, the scarcely spreading limb white or 

 blueish; stamens included, barely or scarcely reaching 

 the level of the sinuses; style 1.0-1.7 mm long, the 

 branches very short; capsule shorter than the calyx; 

 ovules 23-27; seeds mostly 16-24, angular-ovoid, 0.6-1.0 

 mm long, pitted-reticulate . 



3. Diagnostic field characters: Other annual phacelias in 

 Montana are easily distinguished from P. incana by their 

 larger size and generally lobed leaves (except sometimes P. 

 linearis which has large pink flowers) . Other minute annuals 

 may superficially resemble this species (e.g. species of 

 Collinsia, Cryptantha and Mimulus) , but have different floral 

 formulas, leaves, and vestiture (see the description for 

 Mimulus suksdorfii in this report) . 



B. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 



1. Species range: Generally a plant of the Great Basin, P. 

 incana is most common in eastern Nevada and western Utah, but 

 is also known sporadically from northeastern Utah, 

 northwestern Colorado, Wyoming, and central Idaho (Cronquist 

 et al. 1984). It has recently been found in southwestern 



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