Description :

• Annual, rarely perennial herbs
• Leaves alternate or the lowermost opposite, deeply pinnately lobed to irregularly pinnate, rarely entire
• Flowers in scorpioid inflorescences, shortly pedicellate
• Calyx deeply 5-lobed almost to base; without appendages between lobes
• Corolla 5-lobed, rotate to campanulate, white; lobes nearly as long as tube
• Stamens 5; filaments with appendages at their base
• Ovary 1-locular with 2 intruding placentas looking like a septum, hairy, with 4 or more ovules; style bifid
• Fruit a capsule
• Seeds usually 4 or more
• x = 11 (12, 9) (aneuploids, polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• *Phacelia Juss.
  • Jussieu: 129 (1789)
  • Brand: 60 (1913)
  • Tutin: 83 (1972)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 150, mostly from W North America
• Southern Africa : Species 1: * Phacelia artemisioides Griseb., from Argentina, occurs as a roadside weed in the Venterstad-Bethulie area of the Free State and the northern part of the Eastern Cape