You can not appreciate the true beauty of Purple Fringe (Phacelia sericea) unless you get very close to it and notice that instead of being one large flower, it is composed many small flowers. From the vast distance of a hiker's eye to the ground, all these flowers blend in into a giant bottle-scrubber like plant.
I have only seen this flower twice this year. Once was on the Mesa Trail near Boulder and the other was on the slopes of Mt. Audubon. Both locations were dry and rocky. Purple Fringe blooms from June to August.
