Phacelia minor

Whitlavia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	(unplaced)
Family:	Boraginaceae
Genus:	Phacelia
Species:	P. minor
Binomial name
Phacelia minor (Harv.) Thell.
Synonyms
Phacelia whitlavia Whitlavia minor

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.

Description

Phacelia minor is an annual herb producing a mostly unbranched erect stem 20 to 60 centimeters tall. It is glandular and coated in stiff hairs. The leaves are up to 11 centimeters long with toothed, crinkly, oval or rounded blades borne on long petioles. The showy inflorescence is a one-sided curving or coiling cyme of many bell-shaped flowers, each up to 4 centimeters in length. The large flowers are lavender to deep blue-purple in color with protruding stamens tipped with white anthers.

See also

• California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion
• California coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion
• Colorado Desert

Further reading

• Pink, A. (2004). Gardening for the Million. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.

External links

• Jepson Manual Treatment - Phacelia minor
• USDA Plants Profile; Phacelia minor
• Phacelia minor - Photo gallery