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Spreading phlox

Phlox diffusa

Also called Mat Phlox, Cascade Phlox

Spreading phlox
Photo: Walter Siegmund (talk), CC BY 2.5
Family
Polemoniaceae (Polemoni family)
Grows as
Perennial
Native range
S. Oregon, WNW. California, NW. Nevada
Climate
temperate

About

Phlox diffusa is a species of phlox known by the common name spreading phlox. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to the southwestern United States to the Dakotas, where it grows in many types of habitat, including rocky, high elevation mountain slopes. It is a very compact mat-forming perennial herb growing in cushions or patches of short, decumbent stems. The linear, lance-shaped, or needle-like leaves are no more than 1.5 centimeters long and are oppositely arranged in bundles on the short stems. The inflorescence is a solitary tubular flower around a centimeter long. It has a flat white or pale pink or blue corolla with five lobes each just under a centimeter in length.

Where it grows

Phlox diffusa prefers dry hillsides such as areas like rocky slopes and terrains such as alpine or sub-alpine or pumice fields.

Other Phlox plants

Slender phlox · Northern phlox · Alyssumleaf phlox · Hairy phlox · Mountain phlox · Cleft phlox · Swordleaf phlox · Tufted phlox · Thickleaf phlox · Dwarf phlox · Pointed phlox · Wild blue phlox

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Phlox diffusa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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