Gilia diegensis

Coastal gilia

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Coastal gilia is a California native annual found in the southern California mountains, southern California islands, Peninsular Ranges, southern edge of the Mojave Desert, and western edge of the Sonoran Desert in sandy areas, open forest, and scrub at elevations of 220 to 2,200 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces purple and yellow flowers with lavender or white lobes 2 to 5 millimeters long, set against a distinctive blue pollen. Growing with slender stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall, it has a glaucous lower stem and glandular upper stem. Its basal leaves form a prostrate rosette 1 to 7 centimeters long, strap-shaped with spreading toothed or pinnate lobes that are tufted-woolly-hairy. The fruit is a small ovoid structure 3.7 to 7 millimeters long, shorter than the flower's calyx.

Habitat: Sandy areas, open forest, scrub

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 220-2200 m

Bioregions: SnGb, SnBr, PR, s edge DMoj, w edge DSon

California counties: San Bernardino, Imperial, San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles

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