Gilia tricolor subsp. diffusa

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Three-colored gilia is a California native annual found in northern coastal, northern central, and central California regions including the Sierra Nevada foothills, Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, and western Mojave Desert in open grasslands, hills, and valleys at elevations of 90 to 1,530 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces delicate flowers with pale lobes and distinctive throat spots arranged in pairs. Growing with slender stems up to 30 to 40 centimeters tall, it forms open clusters of blossoms with pedicels 10 to 40 millimeters long. Its leaves are finely divided, creating a feathery, intricate appearance across the plant's structure. The small ovoid fruits measure 3 to 6 millimeters in length, containing 12 to 36 seeds.

Habitat: Open grassland, hills, valleys

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: 90-1530 m

Bioregions: NCo, NCoRO, NCoRI, CaRF, SNF, ScV (Sutter Buttes), SnJV, SnFrB, SCoRI, w DMoj.

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

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