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DeBeque Phacelia
This little plant specializes in growing in the cracks in clay soil.
About This Species
DeBeque phacelia is a tiny, low-growing spring annual plant. This rare plant is endemic to Colorado, meaning it is found here and nowhere else on Earth; even within Colorado, it’s found only along the border of Mesa and Garfield counties on the West Slope. These plants live in harsh environments with frequent droughts and depend on cracks in clay soils to establish and grow in the spring. By early summer, after they have produced seeds, DeBeque phacelia plants dry up and blow away. The seeds, which can be somewhat iridescent, fall into nearby cracks, which, when it rains, can swell and close up again, covering the seeds. The seeds can then remain dormant in the soil for at least six years, awaiting the right conditions to germinate and grow.
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Physical Characteristics
The DeBeque phacelia’s leaves form a low-growing rosette (a pattern in which horizontally growing leaves radiate outward, like the petals of a rose). Its leaves have dark red stems up to 3 inches long. Hairy, egg-shaped leaves are similarly small (0.2 to 0.6 inches). From April to June, five-petaled, tubular, yellow-white flowers are produced. By summer, plants have disintegrated or blown away.
Range
DeBeque phacelia is only found in the southern Piceance Basin of Mesa and Garfield counties in Colorado, in an area of about 128 square miles.
Habitat
This tiny annual plant can only grow in expansive brown clay soils found in dry sites on slopes, benches and ridgetops in the southern Piceance Basin. These soils expand when wet and shrink as they dry, causing the large cracks that this species relies on. The DeBeque phacelia is highly specific about its growing conditions, appearing only on small patches of ground with a unique soil texture and distinct cracking patterns.
This plant often grows in sparsely vegetated areas with less than 20% plant cover. It often grows with other annual natives such as pointed gumweed (Grindelia fastigiata) and Gordon's wild buckwheat (Eriogonum gordonii). Surrounding areas are dominated by big sagebrush shrublands and pinyon-juniper woodlands.
Threats to Species
A soil seed bank is a cache of dormant seeds in soil that germinate once environmental conditions are right. The soil seed bank that maintains this species is vulnerable to major soil disturbances. Off-highway vehicle use and cattle grazing have the potential to negatively impact the unique soil structure this species relies on. These activities can also create trenches which alter water flow on slopes, directing precious water away from phacelia populations.