Gilia beardtongue

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Gilia beardtongue

Gilia beardtongue habit

Gilia beardtongue

Morphology

Stem

Erect or ascending, slender, glabrous or scabrous proximally, much branched from a woody base.

Leaves

Opposite, cauline, (7-)10-25 pairs, simple, sessile; blades filiform, .2 to 1.6 inch long, .02 to .1 inch wide, base tapered, margins entire, surfaces glabrous or scabrous, not glaucous, apex acuminate to mucronate.

Inflorescence

Thyrse, terminal, interrupted, cylindric to conic, 2.4 to 6 inches; verticillasters 6-10, cymes with 2 or 3 flowers; proximal bracts linear, .24 to 1.2 inches long, up to .06 inch wide; peduncles ascending, glabrous or scabrous.

Flower

Calyx lobes 5, ovate, 1.06 to .14 inch long, .04 to .06 inch wide, glabrous, acute to mucronate, green with white margins; corolla pink, (limb milky pink or milky white), lined internally with reddish-purple nectar guides, salverform, .6 to 1 inch long, glandular pubescent internally in 2 lines on abaxial surface; lobes 5; upper lobes rounded, reflexed; lower lobes rounded, projecting-spreading; stamens 4, included; staminode 1, included, threadlike to straplike, .28 to .35 inch, glabrous; style glabrous, very slender.

Fruit

Capsule, ovoid, .24 to .35 inch long, .12 to .2 inch wide, glabrous; seeds dark brown, numerous, angled, .04 to .11 inch.

Ecology

Habitat

Sandy plains and hills

Distribution

Kearney, Morton, and Stevens Counties in southwest Kansas.

Practical Information

Uses

Some Native American tribes used gilia beardtongue as a medicinal or ceremonial plant (Moerman 1998).

Additional Notes