Blue Curls. Fiddle-Neck (_Phacelia congesta_) is also known as spider-flower, caterpillars, snail-flower, and wild heliotrope. It has curled flower clusters and lavender-blue flowers very much like those of some of the heliotropes and borages. A California borage is also called fiddle-neck. The flowers are tubular at the base with 5 broadly spreading lobes. The 5 spreading stamens extending from the flowers are responsible for the name of “spider-flower.”
The erect, unbranched stems may be seen on gravelly limestone slopes or in open woods from Central to Southwestern Texas. The large, thin leaves are finely divided and clothed with soft hairs. In woods the plants may grow 1½-2 ft. high, but on rocky slopes they are seldom more than a foot high. The flowers bloom in April and May, a long blooming season resulting from the numerous flowers which open as the curling stems unfold. It is an annual plant which does well in cultivation and makes a lovely addition to the flower garden.
Nearly a hundred phacelias are found in Western North America. The name is from the Greek meaning “cluster.” Most of them are showy plants, but few are known in cultivation.
[Illustration: SOUTHERN HELIOTROPE BINDWEED HELIOTROPE]
Leaves usually alternate; flowers often in curled clusters; sepals 5; petals 5, united; stamens 5, on corolla-tube; ovary often deeply 4-lobed; fruit a drupe or of 4 nutlets.
Southern Heliotrope (_Cochranea anchusaefolia_) grows in limestone soil from Central Texas to Florida and tropical America. It may often be found from spring to fall in the shelter of mesquite or prickly pear. The white-flowered sea-heliotrope (_Heliotropium curassavicum_) is very abundant in saline soil in South and West Texas. Plains heliotrope (_Heliotropium tenellum_) does not have curled clusters of flowers but has a few small white ones borne on short branches. It is widespread in the South-central United States.
Bindweed Heliotrope (_Heliotropium convolvulaceum_) has white flowers quite similar to those of the bindweed, about one inch broad. It is found in sandy soil in South and West Texas to California and Nebraska from spring to fall. The plant has widely branching stems, about a foot long, and the foliage is somewhat rough-hairy. The heliotropes get their name from Greek words which mean “sunturning.”