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.

Phacelia cookei

Critically Imperiled  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Boraginales
Family: Boraginaceae
Genus: Phacelia
Species:
P. cookei
Binomial name
Phacelia cookei
Constance & Heckard

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.

Further reading

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

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