Gilia capitata subsp. staminea

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Gilia capitata subsp. staminea is a California native annual found in southern North Coast Ranges Interior, Great Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, and Southern California coastal regions in sandhills and flats at elevations of 100 to 1,300 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces pale blue-violet flowers in dense heads approximately 20 to 30 millimeters wide with distinctive lobes about 3 millimeters wide. Growing with slender stems 10 to 60 centimeters tall that are glabrous or glandular, it develops an open basal rosette. Its leaves are typically 1-pinnate-lobed, forming delicate, finely divided foliage. The fruit is ovoid, 3.7 to 5 millimeters long, and contained within a hairy calyx with recurved, acuminate lobes.

Habitat: Sandhills, flats

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: 100-1300 m

Bioregions: s NCoRI, GV, SnFrB, SCo

California counties: Santa Cruz, Merced, Contra Costa, Kern, Tulare, San Joaquin, San Benito, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Solano, Monterey, Stanislaus, Madera, Fresno, Lake, Yolo, San Luis Obispo, Glenn, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sutter, Nevada, Mariposa, Sacramento

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.