Phacelia Minor, Wild Canterbury Bells

Phacelia minor is found over quite a small area of south California, from the coast, across the inland mountains to the Sonoran Desert. Plants produce one or several stalks, which grow upwards to heights of 1 to 2 feet. Leaves and stems have a covering of short, black-tipped glandular hairs and longer white bristly hairs. Leaves grow on stalks, which are about the same length as the blade. Leaf edges have large, but somewhat irregularly-sized teeth. Flowers form as small clusters along the upper portion of the stems.

Flowers grow on stalks about half an inch long; they consist of a green, glandular-hairy calyx, split into five narrow lobes, and a bell-shaped, bluish-purple corolla up to 1.5 inches long; a relatively wide tube opening to five spreading lobes. The five stamens (topped by white anthers) and divided style at the center all protrude a little way beyond the lobes.