Caterpillars
Phacelia congestaCaterpillars is an annual wildflower native to the Texas Hill Country that grows 1–3 ft tall and 3 ft wide. It wants full sun or part shade and medium water, and handles caliche and clay soil. Blooms blue and purple in Mar–May. Deer rarely browse it. Good for butterflies.
Will it grow in your yard?
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The facts
4 sources- Type
- Annual wildflower
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade (4–8 hrs of direct sun)
- Water
- Medium
- Height
- 1–3 ft
- Spread
- 3 ft
- Bloom
- Mar–May · blue, purple
- Foliage
- Deciduous or dies back in winter
- Soil
- Takes caliche and clay · recorded on clay, dry, limestone, loam, rocky, sand
- Deer
- High — deer rarely browse it
- Wildlife
- Supports butterflies
Where it grows
Recorded in these EPA Level IV ecoregions in the Austin and Hill Country launch area:
3,481 occurrence records in Central Texas (GBIF).
Can you buy it?
Also grows here — hard to find. Native and recorded growing in Central Texas, but not on the grower stock lists we read. Sourcing varies: some are stocked widely, others you will have to hunt for.
also grows from seed It starts readily from seed, so a packet from a native-seed supplier, or seed collected with permission, is often the easiest way to get a plant no nursery pots.