Gilia tricolor

Bird's-eye gilia

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Bird's-eye gilia is a native annual herb found in California's grasslands and open woodlands. Flowering from March to June, this delicate plant produces distinctive flowers with yellow throats adorned with purple spots and blue-violet petal tips that create a striking three-color effect. Growing with slender, spreading branches 10 to 38 centimeters tall, it has finely divided leaves with linear lobes that form open, lacy clusters. Its leaves are hairy in the axils, with basal leaves pinnately lobed and upper leaves becoming more palmately structured. The flower's intricate coloration—yellow base with purple markings and blue-violet tips—makes this an especially eye-catching member of the gilia family.

California counties: Mendocino, Kern, Los Angeles, Yolo, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Fresno, Santa Clara, El Dorado, Colusa, Tehama, Butte, Solano, Lake, Mariposa, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Alameda, Sonoma, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Napa, Merced, Orange, San Bernardino, Shasta, Trinity, Kings, Sutter, Glenn, Humboldt, Monterey, Riverside, San Mateo, San Diego, Madera, Stanislaus, Amador, Tuolumne, San Benito, Placer, Yuba

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