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Showy gilia

Gilia cana

Also called Desert Gilia

Showy gilia
Photo: Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0

Showy gilia (Gilia cana) is a small annual wildflower of the phlox family, native to California and Nevada, with purple to lavender flowers that bloom March to August. It thrives in full sun with well-drained gravelly or sandy soil.

Family
Polemoniaceae (Polemoni family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly; it is adapted to dry desert and rocky slopes and tolerates drought once established.
Soil
Gravelly or sandy, very well-drained soil.
Temperature
Hardy in mild desert and Mediterranean climates; protect from hard frost.
How easy
Easy
Native range
California
Climate
subtropical

About

Gilia cana is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name showy gilia. It is native to California and Nevada where it grows in open areas with gravelly and sandy soils, such as desert and rocky slopes. The Mojave Desert range of some subspecies may extend into Arizona.

Where it grows

Gilia cana is used as an exclusive food plant by the larvae of the Lepidoptera—butterfly species Schinia biundulata.

Other Gilia plants

Bluehead gilia · Bird's-eye gilia

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Gilia cana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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