[Updated 4/12/17]: This post was previously placed under Gilia jacens...but over time it has become clear that these plants represent an undescribed taxon.

A while back, Ryan O'Dell...BLM botanist with the Clear Creek Management Area...solicited opinions from the foremost authorities on CA Gilia (J. Mark Porter and Leigh Johnson) about the ID here and, while they saw how the post could end up at G. jacens when run through the available keys, their impression was that the plants were most likely an undescribed taxon with possible affinities to (but also conflicts with) G. ochroleuca bizonata, G. o. vivida, or G. latifolia cuyamensis. Ryan has been working to better understand these plants, and will hopefully succeed in finding knowledgeable collaborators with the expertise to clarify the situation, and eventually write up and publish a description for these plants, which appear to comprise a distinctive serpentine endemic taxon.

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Note: For archival purposes, my original remarks for this post from 5/9/2010 appear in purple below...in case others may have linked to or referenced this post earlier.

Habit shot, found growing in (pure!) serpentine on the summit of Laguna Mountain...which is on the western edge of the famous Clear Creek serpentine block, one of the largest contiguous occurrences of serpentine in California.

As a disclaimer, I find Gilia a very difficult genus to correctly identify to species...but my current best effort on this one is Gilia brecciarum ssp. jacens.

I've had an amusing relationship with this taxon over the years. It's become notorious since I've bumped into so many very different looking Gilias that have ''cob-webby hairs'' and ''calyx, pedicel densely glandular''...and thus key straight-away to G. brecciarum in the 1993 Jepson Manual :-). To be fair, there are three subspecies...and perhaps I haven't given due recognition to the possibility that they might be very distinct looking. Also, part of the difficulty has been my inability to find good line drawings or images of all three subspecies. (I guess I should try to go to the Jepson Herbarium and look at some specimens!)

At any rate, this time after carefully going through the keys and descriptions in Jepson and Munz...and trying to cross-reference with any other useful resources I could find on the web...I'm thinking this may really be it! (At least subspecies jacens.) Among the encouraging supporting items are:

• This herbarium record from the nearby vicinity (two miles to the north); and
• The pertinent comments and the addenda to the Gilia key appearing in the Supplement to Munz's ''A California Flora'', which can be perused here.

I encourage anyone who might be able to correct or confirm my putative ID here to contact me! :-)

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