| Gilia | |
|---|---|
| |
| Gilia achilleifolia | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Ericales |
| Family: | Polemoniaceae |
| Genus: | Gilia Ruiz & Pav. |
| Species[1] | |
|
39; see text | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Gilia is a genus of flowering plants in the Polemoniaceae family and is related to phlox.[2] It includes 39 species native to the Americas, ranging from British Columbia to Texas and northern Mexico, and to Ohio, in North America, and from Ecuador and Peru to southern Chile and Argentina in South America.[1] These Western native plants are best sown in sunny, well-draining soil in the temperate and tropical regions of the Americas, where they occur mainly in desert or semi-desert habitats [2]
They are summer annuals, rarely perennials, growing to 10–120 cm tall. The leaves are spirally arranged, usually pinnate (rarely simple), forming a basal rosette in most species. The flowers are produced in a panicle, with a five-lobed corolla, which can be blue, white, pink or yellow.[citation needed]
Gilia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Schinia aurantiaca and Schinia biundulata (the latter feeds exclusively on G. cana).[citation needed]
- ^ a b c Gilia Ruiz & Pav. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
- ^ a b Sunset Western Garden Book (5th ed.). Menlo Park, CA: Lane Pub. Co. 1988. ISBN 0-376-03891-8. OCLC 20930439.