PLANT: Annual, 10-35 cm tall, usually branched; stems cobwebby pubescent below, sparsely glandular above.

LEAVES: cobwebby pubescent, reduced above the basal rosette; basal and lower deeply lobed, the lobes linear, entire or toothed; cauline leaves basally lobed to entire.

INFLORESCENCE: open, with 1-2 pedicelled flowers at branch tips.

FLOWERS: calyx 2.5-5 mm long, glabrous, the lobes acute to acuminate; corolla funnelform, 4-8 mm long, the tube and throat equal to or slightly exceeding the calyx, white, the throat white with yellow flecks, lobeswhite to pale blue, sometimes streaked with violet flecks; stamens inserted on the throat;anthers slightly exserted; stigma located among the anthers.

CAPSULE: 3.5-6 mm long, oblong-ovoid. 2n=36.

NOTES: Sandy soils, bajadas, canyons, desert shrublands, coniferous or oak woodlands; Cochise, Graham, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz, Yavapai cos.; 1150-1650 m (3700-5450 ft); Apr-Jun; AZ to sw NM, s to n Mex.

REFERENCES: Dieter H. Wilken and J. Mark Porter, 2005, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Polemoniaceae. CANOTIA 1: 1-37.

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Small annual herbs, 10-35 cm tall; stems branched throughout, cobwebby pubescent below, minutely glandular above.

Leaves: Basal rosette plus a few reduced, alternate stem leaves, all sparsely cobwebby; blades once or twice deeply pinnatifid into narrow lobes, the lobes 1 mm wide with pointed tips; upper stem leaves often linear, without lobes.

Flowers: White, blue, and yellow, arranged in open panicles with 1-2 pedicelled flowers at each branch tip; calyx 2-5 mm long, glabrous, consisting of 5 herbaceous sepals connected to each other by papery membranes, the sepals with acute to acuminate tips; corolla funnelform, 4-8 mm long, the tube and throat equal to or slightly longer than the calyx, the throat of the corolla white with yellow flecks and the lobes white to pale blue, sometimes flecked with violet; anthers exserted slightly beyond the corolla.

Fruits: Capsule 3-6 mm long, oblong-ovoid; containing several seeds.

Ecology: Found in sandy soils, on bajadas, in canyons, desert shrublands, and coniferous and oak woodlands, from 3,500-5,500 ft (1067-1676 m); flowers April-June.

Distribution: AZ to c and sw NM; south to n MEX.

Notes: The keys to distinguishing this delicate annual are the cobwebby pubescence among the basal leaves; the non-glandular calyx without purple streaks; and lower leaf lobes less than 1 mm wide with pointed tips. The upper stems, particularly in the inflorescence, are often covered with gland-tipped hairs, but the calyx is neither glandular or hairy (G. sinuata has a gland-covered calyx and G. flavocincta has a calyx that is often covered with cobwebby hairs).

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Gilia is named for Filippo Luigi Gilii (1756-1821) an Italian naturalist, while ophthalmoides comes from Greek ophthalmos, eye, and -oides which means resembling.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015, AHazelton 2017