Plant Species of San Jacinto Mountain: Gilia species
Table of Contents
Introduction
The San Jacinto Mountain Gilia Species Found Above 4000 feet elevation
Comparison Pictures of the Gilia Species
Introduction
This page shows comparison pictures of the Gilia species of San Jacinto Mountain found above 4000 feet elevation. More information about distribution and abundance will be added in the future. I include the Saltugilia species on this page, which were formerly placed in the Gilia genus.
There are two important things to note about Gilia identification:
- Mark Porter, in his Jepson Manual treatment, wisely cautions: "Gilia can be challenging to identify. Several small-flowered species are only cryptically different from one another and many traits overlap. Depauperate specimens may be particularly difficult if not impossible to identify using ordinary means."
- Just to make things even more interesting, nearly every Gilia species has a white variant, which often makes it impossible to securely determine specimens, since the color variation in the throat, and sometimes in the pollen, is a key factor in identifications. The white variants can be quite common. In some areas in San Diego County, the white variant of G. diegensis is equally common as the normally-colored plants. Those white variants can easily be taken as G. sinuata if attention is not paid to the length of the stamens and style.
See also:
- Gilias of San Diego County
- Gilias of Lowermost Tahquitz Canyon, west of Palm Springs for more extensive photographs of G. angelensis, G. australis, and G. stellata.
The San Jacinto Mountain Gilia Species Found Above 4000 feet elevation
Table 1 lists the six Gilia species found above 4000 feet elevation at San Jacinto Mountain, along with the number of trails / floras on which we have seen each species.
Table 1. The Gilia species of San Jacinto Mountain above 4000 feet elevation
| Scientific Name | Common Name | # areas |
|---|---|---|
| Gilia angelensis | angel's gilia | 1 |
| Gilia brecciarum ssp. brecciarum | Nevada gilia | 2 |
| Gilia capitata ssp. abrotanifolia | globe gilia | 6 |
| Gilia diegensis | coastal gilia | 9 |
| Gilia ochroleuca ssp. exilis | volcanic gilia | 4 |
| Saltugilia australis | southern gilia | 1 |
| Saltugilia splendens ssp. splendens | splendid gilia | 20 |
Comparison Pictures of the Gilia Species
Click on the thumbnail pictures to get a larger version of any of them that often includes surrounding parts.
The Saltugilia species are easy to recognize, since they have translucent hairs on the leaves which can often by spotted sparkling in the sun from a standing position, and they have tack-shaped glands on the pedicels and stems just below the flowers. Tack-shaped glands are shaped like a tack, with a large flat head as wide as the stalk as long. Most other glands have a stalk longer than the width of the head, or have heads that are spherical, not flat.
Our two Saltugilia species are simply differentiated by flower color, whitish for S. australis and a very definite pink for S. splendens.
Fig. 1 shows comparison pix of four of our Gilia speces. Pictures of S. australis, G. diegensis and G. ochroleuca ssp. exilis are from Garner Valley in April 2014. Pictures of G. brecciarum ssp. brecciarum are from the PCT north of the Cedar Spring Trail on 15 May 2018. Pix of other species will be added in the future.
| Characteristic | S. australis | G. brecciarum ssp. brecciarum | G. diegensis | G. ochroleuca ssp. exilis |
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| Basal leaf hairs (click on pix to see basal leaf rosettes) | 
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| Pedicel / Uppermost Stem glands | 
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| Cauline leaves | 
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| Flower from the side | 
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| Flower from the top | 
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Fig. 1. Comparison of four Gilia species. Note the difference in:
Click on the pix for larger versions.
The most difficult of these to distinguish are G. brecciarum ssp. brecciarum and G. diegensis. Their distinguishing features are:
- The base of the stem is glabrous and glaucous for G. diegensis; and green and at least thinly cobwebby for G. brecciarum ssp. brecciarum.
- The basal leaves are usually, but not always, clearly strap-shaped for G. diegensis, rachis width 1 to 6 mm, with entire lobes; and often not strap-shaped at all for G. brecciarum ssp. brecciarum, rachis width 1.5 to 3.0 mm, with lobes that are not entire; see pictures above.
- The stamens are unequal in length, with the longest reaching to the middle of the corolla lobes, for G. diegensis; and the stamens are equal and just barely exserted from the corolla throat for G. brecciarum ssp. brecciarum; see pictures above.
It also appears to be the case that the tube and lower throat for G. brecciarum ssp. brecciarum is a solid purple, whereas they are a less solid purple for G. diegensis, at least in fresh specimens.
Although the key implies that the upper cauline leaves for G. diegensis are more clasping than those of G. brecciarum ssp. brecciarum, the difference is not clear in at least some cases, since G. brecciarum ssp. brecciarum can have upper cauline leaves that appear just as clasping as those of G. diegensis.
Although in the pictures above, the pollen is blue for G. diegensis and white for G. brecciarum ssp. brecciarum, the latter can also have blue pollen, at least elsewhere.
For additional photographs of G. brecciarum ssp. brecciarum from three different locations on the Desert Divide from the Cedar Spring Trail to the area of Palm View Peak, see west of Palm View Peak - 1; west of Palm View Peak - 2; and top of Cedar Spring Trail.