#Phacelia tanacetifolia

[magicalforestfairy]

Phacelia tanacetifolia

[studdedblurb]

[fragrantblossoms]

Karl Blossfeldt. Wild heliotrope (Phacelia tanacetifolia), Urformen der Kunst.

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Monday 16 October 2023

This seed mix was developed to be attractive to bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects and contains both annual and perennial plants. A major annual component is Phacelia tanacetifolia (scorpion weed, purple tansy, fiddle neck, fernleaf fiddle neck) which is often grown as a green manure.

Jill Raggett

[beetrans]

I am thinking about Who I Am outside of work and Productivity and academia and the like

and after today's Hospital Time I am reminded. that I'm actually a pretty happy person when I'm not buried in heaps upon heaps of stress and literal inescapable pain.

it is nice to be happy. Content. Experiencing the world and the many surprising everyday joys of life. doing something silly. Literally smelling the flowers (one from my Mystery Seeds smells so good -- phacelia tanacetifolia if my ID is right -- aka Bee's Friend! how lovely!!) and brushing my dog and making her hair look stupid and laying down in a comfy bed on a comfy pillow.

yes the Horrors creep in. I'm in a fuckin Bad work environment and family threats and all that. but I Have to find and hold onto the joy. If I cannot find it, I have to keep trying to create it. Building a life more worth living.

[ramskeleton]

Agapostemon texanus collecting pollen on cultivated Phacelia tanacetifolia, so-called Vancouver, MST Territories

[asteroidtroglodyte]

A Gopher has taken up residence in my flower patch. The wee critter has been feasting on the fat crunchy stalks and turning earth like crazy.

Apparently my Phacelia tanacetifolia was simply too lush and scrumptious to pass up. The little beast had to burrow under a compacted earthen dam and 2 retaining walls to get to it. Respect.

I know that the standard response to this sort of thing would be outrage; perhaps a desire to do bodily harm to the Gopher. “Oh no, my flowers!”

I do not do things this way.

This beast is now my Subject, under my protection and free to work my land and feast upon my plenty. They will perform deep fertilization of the earth, additionally improving porosity, aeration, and water retention. They will suffer no harm from me.

Gophers are valuable members of a natural community. Their warrens stretch for hundreds of meters, moving nutrients around and improving the quality of the topsoil. They spread seeds, turn compacted earth, and are positively adorable.

I can plant more flowers. Seeds are cheap. I appreciate the help, little friend.

(I played a lot of Viva Piñata as a kid so the idea of attracting wildlife to my garden has appealed to me since long before I had access to a garden or wildlife)

[moulin-girault]

Nous avons semé la prairie fleurie :

Calendula officinalis : souci

Callistephus chinensis, : aster de chine

Centaurea cyanus, : bleuet

Chrysanthemum segetum : chrysanthème des moissons

Convolvulus tricolor, belle de jour

Coreopsis tincotoria, coreopsis des teinturiers

Coriandrum sativum, coriandre

Cosmos bipinnatus, cosmos des jardins

Cosmos sulphureus, cosmos d’or

Dimorphotheca aurantiaca und sinuata, souvi glandulaire du Cap

Echium plantagineum, vipérine faux plantain

Eschscholzia californica, pavot de Californie

Fagopyrum esculentum, sarrasin commun

Gypsophila elegans, gypsophile élégant

Helianthus annuus, tournesol

Iberis amara, ibéris amer

Lavatera trimestris, mauve annuelle

Linum grandiflorum, lin à grandes fleurs

Linum usitatissimum, lin

Nigella damscena, nigelle de Damas

Onobrychis vicifolia, sainfoin

Papaver rhoeas, coquelicot

Phacelia tanacetifolia, phacélie

Reseda odorata, reseda odorante

Rudbeckia hirta, rudbeckia

Tagetes erecta, rose d’Inde

Trifolium incarnatum, trèfle rouge

Zinnia elegans, zinnia



[worldsandemanations]

Karl Blossfeldt. Wild heliotrope (Phacelia tanacetifolia), Urformen der Kunst

[spreadfire1]

🌺💚💜💙 The fiddleneck / bee food (Phacelia tanacetifolia) is an important source of pollen and nectar for bees, bumblebees, butterflies and hoverflies. 🐝🦋 😍💖 😅 This is both an interesting fact and a running gag from my nature account @spreadfire1 😂. There, on at least three different occasions, I posted pictures of fiddlenecks with exactly this very same quote. 📷 Picture by yours truly @spreadfire1 👌😊🖖

[frank-olivier]

Monday, November 8, 2021

[kevinscottgardens]

21 au 27 mars 2022

I started sowing seeds this week, so I can plant them out in the autumn. The mornings were very cold so I spent the first hour or two sowing seeds in the glasshouse. Then I continued raking the soil for the new meadow. This was tough work. Couli and I just kept raking and clearing the biggest stones, cut roots and clumps of grass. We finished Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon I pulled a roller over the entire site, twice. Then I set up sprinklers around the area so they would be ready to go immediately after sowing.

Wednesday, late morning, I sowed the wildflower meadow. Here are the seeds before being mixed up and mixed with sand to help with a more even distribution.

Here are the seeds all mixed together.

This is the mix:

Achillea millefolium

Agrostemma githago

Allium schoenoprasum

Allium vineale (syn. Allium sphaerocephalum)

Carum carvi

Clinopodium nepeta (syn. Calamintha nepeta)

Campanula persicifolia

Catananche caerulea

Centaurea cyanus 'Blaue Gefüllte'

Centaurea scabiosa

Centaurium erythraea

Dianthus carthusianorum

Galium verum

Knautia arvensis

Lilium martagon

Nigella sativa

Origanum vulgare

Orlaya grandiflora

Ornithopus sativus

Papaver rhoeas

Phacelia tanacetifolia

Pimpinella saxifraga

Rhinanthus minor

Salvia pratensis

Salvia sclarea

Scabiosa columbaria

Trifolium rubens ( or is it Trifolium alpestre ? Time will tell.)

Verbascum blattaria (syn. Verbascum blattaria f. albiflorum)

Couli will take care of irrigation while I’m on holiday. It is very frustrating that Michel delayed this entire project by over a week. I sent a strongly worded message regarding his bullying. Thankfully it is done and I can go away knowing it is in good hands with Couli. Things should take at least a week to germinate by which time I’ll be back.

Wednesday after work, I took the train to Ventimiglia. I couldn’t start my holiday soon enough. I started having problems using my credit card when I ordered my Uber, which I just found a bit strange and thought not much of it until it was refused in the evening when I tried to pay for my hotel room. The place I chose to stay was very close to the train station for my 06.40 train to Rome the next morning. Coincidently, the restaurant André and Denis recommended was adjacent and owned by the cousin of the person I rented my room. The food was delicious. It also seems to be a bit of a gay gathering spot; all the other people in the restaurant were male couples.

Before bed, I sent an email to my bank and was going to ring them while on the train Thursday. I woke up in the middle of the night worrying and discovered a way to send a message via the app. I received a phone call within an hour and we went through about a dozen fraudulent charges. I was shocked. My card had to be cancelled. I was now on holiday without my main credit card. Thankfully, Daniel, who I was visiting in Rome, lent me some money and I had brought my Monzo card, so I transferred money around so I could use it.

It was so nice to spend four days in Rome with Daniel. We���ve been friends since 1994.

We ate very well and enjoyed just wandering around the quieter parts of Rome.

Plant of the week

Boraginaceae Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth.

common name(s) - lacy phacelia, blue tansy, purple tansy, fiddleneck; français : phacélie à feuilles de tanaisie; Deutsch : Büschelblume synonym(s) - Phacelia commixta Greene; Phacelia tanacetifolia var. cinerea Brand; Phacelia tanacetifolia var. genuina Brand; Phacelia tanacetifolia var. pseudodistans Brand; Phacelia tanacetifolia f. staminea Brand; Phacelia tanacetifolia var. tenuifolia Torr.; Phacelia tanacetifolia subvar. tenuisecta Brand; Phacelia tripinnata Fisch., C.A.Mey. & Avé-Lall. conservation rating - none native to - California location - Domaine de l’Orangerie leaves - deciduous fern-like pinnately cut, sometimes rather grey-green; mostly divided into smaller leaflets which are deeply and intricately cut into toothed lobes, giving them a lacy appearance flowers - abundant, densely set soft blue or lavender-blue in terminal, curved cymes in summer; dense and hairy inflorescence is a one-sided curving or coiling cyme of bell-shaped flowers in shades of blue and lavender; just under a centimetre long and has protruding whiskery stamens fruit - seeds are "negatively photoblastic", or photodormant, and will only germinate in darkness habit - robust winter annual of variable height, 200mm to 1,200mm tall and 500mm wide habitat - most common in the deserts of southern California at elevations below 1,500m, but may be occasionally found at much higher elevations pests - generally pest-free disease - generally disease-free hardiness - to -10ºC (H4) soil - well-drained chalk, loam or sand sun - full sun propagation - seed; self-seeds freely pruning - none required nomenclature - Boraginaceae - borago - shaggy-coat, burra with feminine suffix (the leaves); Phacelia - from Greek meaning bundle, in reference to the clustered flowers; tanacetifolia - with leaves resembling those of Tanacetum NB - is used outside its native range in agriculture as a cover crop, a bee plant, an attractant for other beneficial insects, as a green manure and an ornamental plant; is planted in vineyards and alongside crop fields, where it is valued for its long, coiling inflorescences of nectar-rich flowers which open in sequence, giving a long flowering period; is a good insectary plant, attracting pollinators such as bumblebees and honey bees; also attractive to hoverflies (family Syrphidae), which are useful as biological pest control agents because they eat aphids and other pests.

References :

Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5

IUCN [online] http://www.iucnredlist.org/search [10 Apr 22]

Plants of the World [online] https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:432789-1 [10 Apr 22]

Royal Horticultural Society [online] https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/23945/phacelia-tanacetifolia/details [10 Apr 22]

Wikipedia [online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phacelia_tanacetifolia [10 Apr 22]

World Flora Online [online] http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0000465176 [10 Apr 22]

[s-hodne]

Florilegium

  Or: How my love for walks, nature writing & sketching currently seems to merge in a joyful celebration of all things growing –

Phacelia tanacetifolia; “purple tansy” or “fiddleneck” 

It seems I am about to sketch a florilegium for myself, for the simple joy of doing it – .

The florilegium – a short history

In medieval latin a florilegium (plural florilegia) was a compilation of excerpts from…

[kristo-flowers]

Blue tansy flowers

[conspectusargosy]

Visiting Death Valley in 2021 was a disappointment compared to 2020, but there were some die-hard plants still flowering despite the dryness of the year. Phacelia crenulata was one of the few we saw, thriving at the edge of roads where the asphalt sheds water and can help keep it from evaporating as quickly. Phacelia, AKA scorpionweeds for the curled inflorescences they grow, is native to North and South America though Phacelia tanacetifolia is making headway as an introduced species in Europe. The scorpion-tail cymes of P. crenulata’s purple flowers mature into capsules full of orange-brown seeds which will hang out in the soil for as long as half a decade waiting for decent conditions to germinate and grow for a year – an endurance which may be necessary in the arid climates to which they are native. I took some seed heads home to photograph and grow, but so far I haven’t gotten them as large as they were growing even in that dry year!