Species
+

Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth.

Lacy Phacelia (EN), Phacelia, Rainfarn-Büschelschön (DE), Scorpion Weed

Climate known 68 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Phacelia tanacetifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Hydrophyllaceae, known by the common names lacy phacelia, tansy-leaf phacelia, blue tansy, purple tansy or fiddleneck (UK).

Text from Wikipedia, “Phacelia tanacetifolia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Phacelia

Phacelia is a genus of about 200 species of annual or perennial herbaceous plants in the family Hydrophyllaceae, native to North and South America. California is particularly rich in species with over 90 recorded in the region.

Text from Wikipedia, “Phacelia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Hydrophyllaceae
Described by
Benth.
Native to
Arizona, California, Nevada +1
Wild records
388 in range· 56 open

At a glance

Warmest month
34°C
Jul, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
296mm/yr
5 wet months · peak Feb 60 mm (CHELSA)
Light
18–54DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 296 mm a year, wettest February at 60 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 54 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Phacelia commixta Greene; Phacelia tanacetifolia f. staminea Brand; Phacelia tanacetifolia subsp. alba T.Moore; Phacelia tanacetifolia var. cinerea Brand; Phacelia tanacetifolia var. genuina Brand and 5 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (214 mm of 296 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.7 °C against a yearly mean of 16.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 296 mm a year, wettest February at 60 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

296 mm a year at the habitat, 214 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 60 mm, driest July at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 135 mm to 707 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 54 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 54 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 56).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 0.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 0.0 °C, the absolute minimum -5.1 °C, about 4 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 44.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 1.6 °C to 6.5 °C), warmest day 33.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 44 to 56% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 13 °C in Dec to 34 °C in Jul; mean night from 4 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 296 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 193 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -5.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 44.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost44.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-5.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 18–54RH 44–56 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 193 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C14 / 12–1715 / 13–1818 / 16–2022 / 19–2426 / 23–2930 / 26–3334 / 29–3733 / 29–3630 / 27–3224 / 23–2618 / 16–2013 / 12–16
Night °C4 / 2–75 / 2–86 / 4–98 / 6–1012 / 10–1415 / 13–1719 / 16–2119 / 16–2016 / 14–1812 / 10–147 / 5–104 / 1–6
Rain mm59 / 23–13760 / 27–12949 / 20–10022 / 7–468 / 3–212 / 1–51 / 0–42 / 1–65 / 4–915 / 8–3827 / 13–8946 / 19–135
DLI20 / 14–2125 / 20–2734 / 30–3844 / 40–4751 / 47–5354 / 52–5653 / 51–5348 / 47–4940 / 38–4231 / 27–3222 / 17–2418 / 13–20
RH %55 / 50–6256 / 50–5955 / 49–5951 / 45–5648 / 43–5845 / 41–5844 / 40–5645 / 41–5646 / 42–5648 / 44–5552 / 46–5754 / 49–59

Each figure is the median across the 193 grid cells holding the 363 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1062:1204 (36.875, -119.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 44.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 193 distinct grid cells holding the 363 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1062:1204 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.00_-120.000, lapse-corrected -91 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 104 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArizona, California, Nevada, Mexico Northwest· introduced: Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Canary Is., Altay, Buryatiya, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Tasmania, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Montana, Oregon, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan
Kew's description“annual” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker35.131, -119.853 · in the densest population, 290 records (75% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 388 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 56 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 377 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 25 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 388 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Phacelia tanacetifoliaPhacelia tanacetifoliaPhacelia tanacetifoliaPhacelia tanacetifoliaPhacelia tanacetifoliaPhacelia tanacetifoliaPhacelia tanacetifoliaPhacelia tanacetifolia

Photographs: (c) Pavel Komkov, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Phacelia tanacetifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Use of Phelia tanacetifolia Strips To Enhance Biological Control of Aphids by Overfly Larvae in Cereal Fields
Janice M. Hickman, S. D. Wratten (1996) · Journal of Economic Entomology
Succession of bee communities on fallows
Ingolf Steffan‐Dewenter, Teja Tscharntke (2001) · Ecography
Foraging trip duration of bumblebees in relation to landscape‐wide resource availability
Catrin Westphal, Ingolf Steffan‐Dewenter, Teja Tscharntke (2006) · Ecological Entomology
The effects of floral understoreys on parasitism of leafrollers (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) on apples in New Zealand
Nicola A. Irvin, S. L. Scarratt, S. D. Wratten, Chris Frampton (2006) · Agricultural and Forest Entomology
Evaluating exposure and potential effects on honeybee brood (Apis mellifera) development using glyphosate as an example
Helen Thompson, Steven L. Levine, Janine Doering, Steven P. Norman (2014) · Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management
Kinetic parameters of nitrate uptake by different catch crop species: effects of low temperatures or previous nitrate starvation
Philippe Laîné, Alain Ourry, J. H. Macduff, J. Boucaud (1993) · Physiologia Plantarum
Effects of an exotic plant and habitat disturbance on pollinator visitation and reproduction in a boreal forest herb
Ørjan Totland, Anders Nielsen, Anne‐Line Bjerknes, Mikael Ohlson (2006) · American Journal of Botany
Determination of Flavonoids and Phenolic Acids in Plant Materials Using SLE-SPE-UHPLC-MS/MS Method
Sylwia Bajkacz, Irena Baranowska, Bogusław Buszewski, Bartosz Kowalski (2018) · Food Analytical Methods

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Phacelia 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.