Biology:Gilia

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Short description: Genus of flowering plants

Gilia
Gilia achilleifolia NPS.jpg
Gilia achilleifolia
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Polemoniaceae
Genus: Gilia
Ruiz & Pav.
Species

See text

Gilia is a genus of between 25 and 50 species of flowering plants in the Polemoniaceae family and is related to phlox.[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 [1]

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.

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).

Selected species

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Sunset Western Garden Book (5th ed.). Menlo Park, CA: Lane Pub. Co. 1988. ISBN 0-376-03891-8. OCLC 20930439. 

Wikidata ☰ Q2704906 entry