It is native to the eastern and central United States in scattered locations from Missouri to Maryland and North Carolina.

[2][3] Phacelia covillei has slender weak stems which are 15 through 30 centimeters (6–12 inches) long, pubescent, and branched from their bases.

[4] Phacelia covillei is self-pollinating, that is, evidently not pollinated by insects or other animals, in the Potomac Gorge Area of Maryland and Virginia.

[5] Phacelia covillei has a very limited, disjunct distribution in the eastern United States.

Phacelia covillei also occurs in the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Missouri where officials have not assigned it a conservation status.