Phacelia heterophylla
I collected the seeds for this because I was at a spot collecting seeds for another plant, saw the dried up stalks of this, and thought, "That looks like a native. I'll just collect the seeds and find out." Sometimes that can be an unwise strategy, but in this case it worked out. Especially since, as with several of the flowers I have been posting, the original site was purged of native plants by some fool drunk on herbicide.
Lots of it sprouted, enough that I was a little worried that it was some invasive noxious thing, but it is indeed native, and apparently much appreciated by the local native bees. The clumps of it are buzzing with them. For some odd reason, many people have been promoting dandelions as this great thing to grow for bees. I mean, grow whatever you want, but dandelions are an invasive noxious weed, and I pull every one I find. They are not, however, the first food for bees (I recall that I had posted the first 15-16 flowers in this series before dandelions started blooming around here), and they are not nearly as good a source for pollen as many of these natives are. I am not a very skilled photographer, and it was tricky to get a shot of one of these bees doing their thing, but you can see the little bee working their magic in the middle of the photo, below.
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