Lacy phacelia, blue tansy or purple tansy - Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth. - Cyprus

Phacelia tanacetifolia is a species of phacelia known by the common names lacy phacelia, blue tansy or purple tansy.

It was originally native to the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico, but it is now used in many places in agriculture as a cover crop, a bee plant, an attractant for other beneficial insects, as a green manure  and an ornamental plant. It 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. It is a good insectary plant, attracting pollinators such as honey bees

It is also attractive to hoverflies (family Syrphidae), which are useful as biological pest control agents because they eat aphids and other pests

This is an annual herb which grows erect to a maximum height near 100 centimeters. The wild form is glandular and coated in stiff hairs. The leaves are mostly divided into smaller leaflets deeply and intricately cut into toothed lobes, giving them a lacy appearance. The very hairy inflorescence is a one-sided curving or coiling cyme of bell-shaped flowers in shades of blue and lavender. Each flower is just under a centimeter long and has protruding whiskery stamens.

The seeds are "negatively photoblastic", or photodormant, and will only germinate in darkness

Phacelia (phacelia, scorpionweed, heliotrope) is a genus of about 200 species of annual or perennial herbaceous plants, native to North and South America.

The genus is traditionally placed at family rank with the waterleaves (Hydrophyllaceae) in the order Boraginales. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, recognizing that the traditional Boraginaceae and Hydrophyllaceae are paraphyletic with respect to each other, merges the latter into the former and considers the family basal in the Euasterids I clade. Other botanists continue to recognize the Hydrophyllaceae and Boraginales, but to make them monophyletic the present genus be moved to the Boraginaceae.[verification needed]

Many species are cultivated as garden plants and honey plants.

As with many species in the Boraginaceae, contact with the hairs of some species of Phacelia can cause a very unpleasant rash similar to that from poison oak and poison ivy in sensitive individuals. The major contact allergen of Phacelia crenulata has been identified as geranylhydroquinone. The similar-appearing species Eriodictyon parryi (poodle-dog bush), a common chaparral plant of Southern California, is also a frequent cause of skin irritation.
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Photos Orkonta 28/4/2015 by George Konstantinou