Some of the nicest plant discoveries happen when a person is not even botanizing. A few years ago I was walking a farm field in Starke County, Indiana in search of unusual rocks and decided to cut through a small forest to get to the next field. What luck! The forest floor was literally covered by thousands of small plants with tiny blue flowers that I did not recognize. What could be more fun than finding something new – especially when you don’t even know the genus?! I took a few specimens with me and identified it as Phacelia ranunculacea/ P. covillei in the Hydrophyllaceae. I’m not sure I will ever learn to see the subtle differences between the two species. My plants were officially identified as Phacelia covillei by Dr. Michael Vincent of Miami University in Ohio, a leading authority on this plant, and former botany professor of several participants in this blog.
Yesterday I visited a nearby forest (about 3/10 mile away) and found the plant abundant there, as well. It turns out that both species are extremely uncommon the world over.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=PHRA3http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=PHCO30Phacelia covillei, Coville's Phacelia, Coville's Scorpion Weed
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