General: Notch-leaf Phacelia (Phacelia crenulata) is an annual forb with scalloped or notched leaves and an open inflorescence with many small, bell-shaped, purple flowers with white throats that all grow from the same side of the branching flower stalks.

Notch-leaf Phacelia is a common component of desert vegetation communities during the spring. It can be found on flats, in and along washes, and on bajadas into the lower mountains in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats), Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland), and Transition (Yellow Pine Forest) life zones.

Note: secretions on leaves and stems of phacelias can cause a rash similar to poison oak or poison ivy.

Family: Waterleaf (Hydrophyllaceae).

Other Names: Scorpionweed.

Plant Form: Erect annual forb.

Height: Usually to about shin high, to about 2 feet.

Stems: Erect with few branched, hairy, glandular.

Leaves: Oblong, scalloped to deeply lobed; to about 3-inches long.

Flowers: Blooms during spring. Inflorescence: open cyme with many small flowers growing on the same side of the flower stalks. Flowers small, bell-shaped, purple with a white throat.

Seeds:

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly soils on flats, in and along washes, on bajadas, and on moderate slopes into the middle-elevation mountains.

Elevation: To about 7,000 feet

Distribution: Nevada to California, Utah, and Arizona, and south into northwestern Mexico.

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