General: Annual herb from a taproot; stems erect, sometimes decumbent, simple or branched, minutely hairy or glandular-hairy at least above, 5-30 cm tall.
Leaves: Upper leaves alternate, entire, linear to lance-elliptic; lower leaves opposite, more egg-shaped; 1-5 cm long, unstalked, at least the upper leaves hairy to glandular.
Flowers: Inflorescence of pairs of flowers (one stalked the other not) at the ends of the stem and branches, or single in the axils of leaf-like bracts; corollas pinkish-white, 5-15 mm long, the tube white or yellowish, spreading to five pink to pale purple, squared-off or notched, 1-2 mm long lobes; calyces 5-10 mm long, glandular-hairy, with 5 green ribs separated by membranous tissue that is ruptured by the ripening capsule, the slender teeth about as long as the tube.
Fruits: Capsules, spheric to egg-shaped, 3-chambered; seeds 1 per chamber.
Moist to dry grasslands, meadows, rocky slopes, floodplain terraces, streamsides, gravelly roadsides and forest openings in the lowland, steppe and lower montane zones; common in S BC, infrequent northward; ssp. gracilis - mostly west of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, N to Vancouver Island, introduced in SE AK, S to CA, OR and MT; ssp. humilis - mostly east of Coast-Cascade Mountains, N to S YT (where probably introduced), S to MT, NM, CA and MX, S America.
Ecological Framework for Microsteris gracilis var. humilior
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
BC Ministry of Environment:BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer,
the authoritative source for conservation information in British Columbia.
Synonyms and Alternate Names
Gilia gracilis var. humilior (Hook.) H. St. John Microsteris gracilis subsp. humilis (Greene) Brand Microsteris humilis Greene Microsteris micrantha (Kellogg) Greene Phlox gracilis subsp. humilis (Greene) H. Mason Phlox gracilis var. humilior (Hook.) B. Boivin
