The fiddleneck is displaying attractive flowers on the Bee Borders.
A member of the borage family (Boraginaceae) Phacelia tanacetifolia is a hardy annual from California and northwest Mexico. In the United Kingdom it will grow through winter and flower from spring through to autumn. In a sunny position it will self seed. Often grown as a green manure to improve soil, it is also a drought-tolerant species which is highly attractive to bees. P. tanacetifolia has distinct scorpioidal cymes in which the flowers emerge on only one side of the inflorescence giving the appearance of a coil. From these cymes it earns the common names of fiddleneck or scorpion weed. It has bell-shaped, fused flowers and distinct, lengthy anthers, fern-like leaves and glandular hairs on the stems, leaves and calyx.