Hairy, bristly stems 5–48 inches tall have hooked-tip flowers clusters (like scorpion tails) densely packed with small white flowers with extended stamens. Note the distinctive, strong-veined, hairy elliptic leaves that vary from simple to having 1–4 paired lobes. The genus Phacelia has at different times been placed in the Hyrophyllaceae  and Boraginaceae families.

FLOWER: June–October. Small, bell-shaped, white to pinkish flowers grow in crowded clusters on one side of elongated, densely bristly, hooked stems; petals 3/16–5/16-inch long (4–7 mm); stamens extend far beyond petals. Fruit a 1/8-inch (3 mm), egg-shaped, hairy capsule.

LEAVES: Basal; alternate on stem. Blades 2–6-inches long (50–150 mm), narrowly elliptic, pointed, with 1 or 4 pairs of small leaflets at the base of the blade.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly moist soils, brushlands, open forests, roadsides; sagebrush, foothill woodlands to aspen-spruce forests.

ELEVATION: 4,000–9,500 feet.

RANGE: All states west of Rocky Mts.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 24 species of scorpionweed in NM. The widespread White-flowered Phacelia, P. alba, has white to blue flowers and pinnate leaves. Newberry’s Phacelia, P. ivesiana, in the Four Corners, has inconspicuous white flowers with stamens included inside.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread except eastern plains in mid- to high-elevation, moist habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Hidalgo, Luna, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union.