PHACELIA TANACETIFOLIA

Family and Genus:- See- HYDROPHYLLACEAE

Common Names:- Lacy phacelia, blue tansy or purple tansy.

Homotypic Synonyms:- Phacelia tanacetifolia var. cinerea, Phacelia

tanacetifolia var. pseudo-distans.

Meaning:- Phacelia (Gr) Bundle, (the clustered flowers).

Tanacetifolia (L) With leaves those of Tanacetum.

General description:- Annual.

Stems:-

1) 20-80 cm, glandular-pubescent and hispid, usually erect and simple or sparingly

branched.

Leaves:-

1) 2-10 cm, shortly petiolate, ovate to ovate-oblong in outline, 1- to 2-pinnatisect.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, dense, generally 2-4-branched.

2) Calyx lobes, 4-7 mm, 6-8 mm in fruit, ± linear, densely long-hairy.

3) Corolla, ± persistent in fruit, 6-9 mm, widely campanulate, blue.

4) Corolla scales, fused to the filament bases, linear.

5) Stamens, 9-15 mm, long-exserted, glabrous.

6) Filaments, purple.

7) Style, 8-15 mm, connate for c. 1 mm, cleft 2/3-3/4, glabrous.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, 3-4 mm, ovoid, glabrous proximally, puberulent to short-hairy distally.

2) Seeds, 1-2(4), 2--3 mm, wrinkled, pitted.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Sandy to gravelly slopes, open areas. Elevation: 0-2500 m.

Distribution:- Native to North America. But is now widely cultivated in agriculture

as a cover crop and occasionally as an ornamental on road embankments.

Previously unrecorded from Crete. Discovered by Christopher Cheiladakis on the

Lasithi Plateau in 2022, with a further two locations found by Enda McMullen in

2023 in the Spili area.

Used outside its native range in agriculture as a cover crop, a bee plant, an

attractant for other beneficial insects, as a green manure and an ornamental plant.

It is planted in vineyards and alongside crop fields, where it is valued for its long,

coiling inflorescences of nectar-rich flowers which open in sequence, giving a long

flowering period. It is a good insectary plant, attracting pollinators such as

bumblebees and honey bees.

Flowering time:- Mar--May

Photos by:- Christopher Cheiladakis and Enda McMullen