When does distant phacelia bloom in California?

Most often in June. Across 4,428 dated, research-grade observations of Phacelia distans in California, the flowering season runs roughly January to November.

Peak June In flower 4,428 Examined 4,619 State California

Flowering 4,428 in flower of 4,619 examined

84%

96%

97%

98%

100%

83%

88%

80%

Proportion of examined Phacelia distans in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	281	333	84%	80% to 88%
Feb	650	674	96%	95% to 98%
Mar	1603	1651	97%	96% to 98%
Apr	1193	1214	98%	97% to 99%
May	420	427	98%	97% to 99%
Jun	80	80	100%	95% to 100%
Jul	18	18	100%	82% to 100%
Aug	2	2	too few examined
Sep	1	2	too few examined
Oct	15	18	83%	61% to 94%
Nov	59	67	88%	78% to 94%
Dec	106	133	80%	72% to 86%

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Phacelia distans in California observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 4,428 of 4,619 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 2 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in California found Phacelia distans in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in California, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Phacelia distans

distant phacelia

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in California. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.