Gilia capitata ssp. chamissonis (blue dune gilia)
by Doreen Smith
The blue dune gilia (Gilia capitata ssp. chamissonis) isn’t doing very well out on Pt. Reyes or, it seems, anywhere else.
It grows in bare sand areas in the coastal dunes, where it is increasingly overrun by South African Carpobrotus species (iceplants).
Additionally, this subspecies of Gilia capitata can easily be confused with some of the others.
Records in the online Consortium of California Herbaria (http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/consortium/) for the coastal counties list the same location supposedly having one or more of these other subspecies (such as subspecies pacifica and subspecies tomentosa) as well as subspecies chamissonis. Pictures of the plant on CalPhotos are mostly from Pt. Reyes; if it were easily found elsewhere in the historic locations there would be more.
Photos by Doreen and Vernon Smith.
Gilia capitata ssp. chamissonis
Gilia capitata ssp. chamissonis – (blue dune gilia)