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Friday, April 19, 2024

Light-eyed?

  

I was checking on some wildflowers in the dunes earlier this week and was noticing it seems to be a good year for many of the annuals, including Dark-eyed Gilia (Gilia millefoliata). 

I had seen hundreds of Dark-eyed Gilias, all with typical purplish petals, when I came across one with all white flower parts:

 
I looked around and found eight more plants with white flowers in the same area, but no other white-petaled Gilia flowers elsewhere.  

We've seen this phenomenon of white variants in other species, but I hadn't noticed it in Dark-eyed Gilia before, so I thought it was worth documenting.

The Jepson Manual says that Gilia millefoliata petals can be purple or "colorless," so perhaps this variant appears occasionally and we just hadn't seen it in the Bodega Dunes yet.

P.S.  Should we call the variant Light-eyed Gilia?  ;)
 

3 comments:

Sybold said...

LOVE Gilia millefoliata, known to me as Bird's Eye Gilias. Love their blue pollen, their sort of chocolaty
umami scent. Never have I seen a colorless variant.
Jackie, What bird has light eyes?
Once again, thank you for the on-going teaching, and showing us the Wonders!

Jackie Sones said...

Hello!

Thanks for the fun comment!

Check out female Bushtits:
https://bodegahead.blogspot.com/2016/12/45.html

:) Jackie

Sybold said...

Yes! Those glorious tiny females must have influenced this Gilia's common name. Thanks!