Phacelia cookei is a rare species of phacelia known by the common name Cooke's phacelia. It is endemic to Siskiyou County, California, where it is known from just a few occurrences in the forest and scrub around Mount Shasta. The substrate in the area is sandy, ashy volcanic soil.

It is an annual herb growing in a small, flat mat or with a short upright stem a few centimeters high. It is blue-green in color, succulent, and lightly hairy. The oval, smooth-edged leaves are one or two centimeters long and borne on short petioles. The hairy inflorescence is a one-sided curving or coiling cyme of several tiny bell-shaped flowers. Each flower is white with lavender veining, about half a millimeter wide and no more than 2 millimeters long.

Phacelia cookei

Further reading

Constance, L. & L. R. Heckard. (1970). Two new species of Phacelia (Hydrophyllaceae) from California. Brittonia 22:1 25–30.

Phacelia cookei

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment

Photo gallery

cookei

Endemic flora of California

Mount Shasta

Natural history of Siskiyou County, California

Critically endangered flora of California

Plants described in 1970

Taxa named by Lincoln Constance

Phacelia cookei