Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

BLUEBOWLS

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Gilia rigidula Benth. subsp. acerosa (A. Gray ) Wherry

[=Gilia acerosa (A. Gray ) Britton]

[=Giliastrum acerosum (A. Gray ) Rydb.]

Scott County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 3-10 inches

Family: Polemoniaceae - Polemonium Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June, July

Stems:

Widely spreading branches from base, minutely glandular-hairy.

Leaves:

Alternate, pinnately-cleft to pinnate, 1/4 to 1 inch long, unequally divided; segments 2-7, needle-like to linear-oblong, 1/12 to 1/2 inch long, minutely glandular-hairy, tip sharp-pointed; lower stem leaves sessile or short-stalked; upper stem leaves gradually reduced.

Inflorescences:

Solitary or in small, loose clusters; bracts linear to 3-cleft.

Flowers:

1/3 to 3/5 inch long; calyx cylindrical to egg-shaped, to 1/5 inch long, 5-lobed; lobes 1/2 to 2/3 length of calyx; corolla wheel-shaped, 5-lobed, blue-violet to purple with yellow eye; lobes circular to oval, 1/8 to 1/5 inch long; stamens 5, extending out.

Fruits:

Capsule, broadly egg-shaped to oblong, 1/8 to 1/5 inch long; seeds 2-6 per compartment, slimy when wet.

Habitat:

Dry sandy or rocky prairies and hillsides.

Distribution:

South 2/3 of west 1/3 of Kansas.

Uses:

Native Americans massaged the crushed plant on cramping muscles.

Comments:

A slightly shrubby plant woody at the base.

Bluebowls