Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Texas scorpion-weed

TEXAS SCORPION-WEED

File Size: 145 KB

Phacelia texana J. W. Voss

Comanche County, Kansas (photo by Phyllis Scherich)

Annual or biennial

Height: 16-48 inches

Family: Boraginaceae - Borage Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September,October

Stems:

Erect, simple or branched from base. Plants glandular-pubescent.

Leaves:

Alternate; basal leaves petiolate, blade ovate to orbicular, .8 to 4.8 inches long, .4 to 3.6 inches wide, margins crenate to sinuate; cauline leaves nearly sessile, ovate to lanceolate, .6 to 4.4 inches long, .33 to 1.8 inch wide, crenate to sinuate, rarely nearly entire.

Inflorescences:

Helicoid racemes, terminal, unbranched, 10-60-flowered, remaining dense and crowded.

Flowers:

Sepals 5, connate basally, calyx 1/12 to 1/5 inch, lobes elliptic; corolla lavender, 5-lobed, funnelform, limb 1/8 to 1/5 inch wide, tube 1/5 to 1/4 inch; lobes spreading; stamens 5; anthers included or slightly exserted; style included or exserted, divided 1/4 to 1/2 its length.

Fruits:

Capsules broadly ovoid, ca. 1/8 inch, pubescent to sparsely hispid; seeds rusty brown, oblong, 1/12 to 1/8 inch, honeycombed.

Habitat:

Gypsiferous soils in mixed-grass prairies

Distribution:

Red Hills region of south central Kansas

Origin:

Native

Texas scorpion-weed