notes Only view I got of cauline leaf (at right, near base of stem). I'm guessing it can be interpreted as 'clasping' the main stem (near the 'red edge' at base of leaf). It certainly looks like it's clasping the leaf petiole of the smaller young leaf growing from its axial bud. I often find Gilia quite challenging to identify to species, and I had previously placed this under G. latiflora ssp. davyi. But I'm now fairly sure this is Gilia cana ssp. triceps...after reviewing my images here, and carefully revisiting the keys and descriptions in the Jepson Manual keys, in Munz, and in the very detailed paper:
Grant, A. and V. Grant (1956). Genetic and taxonomic studies in Gilia. VIII. The cobwebby Gilias., Aliso 3:203-287.
Both G. cana and G. latiflora have a number of described subspecies, and some of the character states among these taxa are variable and in some cases overlapping...which can cause much confusion. This is also true for the specimen records from the California Consortium of Herbaria: compare this map of G. cana triceps records with this map of G. latiflora spp. davyi records. I actually had a hard time interpreting this leaf base character here, and the plant in my photos fits fairly well with descriptions given for both taxa. My best attempt at the choice here is that the cauline leaves are not clasping or expanded at base. But regardless, the bulk of the characters (and in particular, the crucial color sequence for the tube-throat-limb of the corolla) all point to G. cana.
Furthermore, the location where this plant was photographed...Nemo Canyon, a few miles south of Emigrant Pass...appears to fit better with the Grant's range description for G. cana spp. triceps. This is also true for the specimen records from the California Consortium of Herbaria: compare this map of G, cana triceps records with this map of G. latiflora spp. davyi records. In particular, the closest CCH record for G. latiflora ssp. davyi is this record (a relatively northerly outlier), whereas there are more records for G. cana ssp. triceps in the general vicinity of the Panamint Mountains, the closest being this one.
Here's a summary of the salient characters which, taken together, lead me to place this as G. cana ssp. triceps:
Pollen blue; plants arachnoid woolly on lower stems and leaves; corolla tube short-exserted, purple; corolla throat without purple, yellow below and violet-blue above, abruptly expanded; cauline leaf-bases not significantly expanded or clasping; inflorescence lax, with long internodes, divaricate branches, and most the shorter pedicels more than half the length of the longer ones.
PS: In regard to the difficulties I had in IDing this, I took partial solace in reading the post-description remarks in the (now old) treatment of this taxon on pg 177 of the Intermountain Flora, Vol 4. That work simply lumped G. latiflora and G. cana! :-)
