Phacelia

The facelia is an annual plant with an upright habit that can reach a meter in height. The stem is hollow. The pinnate leaves are covered with hair and resemble those of tansy (hence called tanacetifolia). The flower has a 'scorpioid inflorescence with ascalar flowering that lasts for several weeks, of a bluish-violet color. The five stamens and the two styles clearly emerge from the five-petaled flower. The inflorescence has the characteristic of being spiraled, which makes it particularly beautiful , for which the Facelia is also used as a cut flower both fresh and dried.
The plant is cultivated all over the world as a melliferous species, easy to cultivate and self-re-seeding, that is, it reproduces with self-dissemination. For use as forage grass, mowing takes place at the end of flowering when the first flowers already begin to disseminate, so as to ensure re-sowing for subsequent harvests. In Italy it has also been used to produce the so-called "fasciato" that is wet forage packed in an anaerobic environment where it is preserved thanks to a lactic fermentation. In many areas of central and southern Italy it serves above all as a green manure crop to fertilize the soil in a natural way as it yields large quantities of nitrogen to the soil. It also manages to prevent the growth of weeds by releasing particular chemicals that inhibit the growth of competing species.