Gilia minor

Little gilia

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Little gilia is a California native annual found in southern Coast Ranges, San Joaquin Valley, western Transverse Ranges, San Gabriel Mountains, and Mojave Desert in firm sandy habitats at elevations of 300 to 1,100 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces purple to lavender flowers with yellow throats and purple veins, approximately 4 to 8 millimeters long. Growing with decumbent stems 6 to 20 centimeters tall, it forms tufted clusters with woolly-hairy lower branches. Its basal leaves grow in a rosette with 1-pinnate lobes, each lobe linear and measuring 0.6 to 0.9 millimeters wide, covered in tufted woolly hairs. The fruit is narrowly ovoid, 5 to 7 millimeters long, containing 18 to 27 seeds.

Habitat: Firm sand, generally at base of shrubs

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: 300-1100 m

Bioregions: SCoR, SnJV, WTR, SnGb, DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Inyo, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Fresno, Kings

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