There are several kinds of Collomia, almost all annuals; leaves alternate, usually toothless; flowers in clusters; differing from Gilia and Linanthus in the calyx, which increases in size as it grows older; corolla tube-shaped, funnel-form, or salver-form, with spreading lobes; stamens unequally inserted on the corolla-tube, with unequal filaments; seeds usually mucilaginous.
Collòmia grandiflòra (Gilia)
Buff
Summer
Cal., Utah, Wash.
Very pretty flowers, which attract attention because of their unusual coloring. The leafy stem is from one to two feet tall and slightly downy and the leaves are generally toothless, smooth, and rather dark green. The flowers form a roundish terminal cluster, which is about two inches across, surrounded by broad bracts, which are sticky to the touch. The corolla is funnel-form, about an inch long, various shades of buff or salmon-color, and as the downy buds are yellow, the newly-opened flowers buff, and the older ones pinkish or cream-white, the combinations of color are odd and effective. This is quite common in Yosemite, in warm situations, and much cultivated in Germany. It is sometimes called Wild Bouvardia, but this is a poor name, as it is that of a plant belonging to an entirely different family.
Collòmia lineàris (Gilia)
Pink
Summer
West
From six inches to over a foot tall, with a rather stout, very leafy stem, more or less branching, and alternate leaves, smooth, toothless, and rather dark green, the upper stems and buds hairy and sticky. The flowers have no pedicels and narrow funnel-form or salver-form corollas, bright pink, about a quarter of an inch across, and are crowded in roundish clusters, at the tips of the leafy branches, the larger clusters toward the top. Though the tiny flowers are bright and pretty this is not an effective plant. It grows in dry, open, sandy places and the foliage has a rather disagreeable smell when crushed.
Collomia grandiflora.
C. linearis.
WATERLEAF FAMILY. Hydrophyllaceae.
Herbs or shrubs, mostly natives of western North America; often hairy; with no stipules; the leaves mainly alternate or from the root; the flowers chiefly blue or white, often in coiled clusters; the calyx with five united sepals; the corolla with five united petals; the stamens five, on the base of the corolla and alternate with its lobes, with threadlike filaments and usually with swinging anthers; the ovary superior, the styles two or two-cleft; the fruit a capsule, containing few or many seeds. The leaves were formerly supposed to have water-cavities in them, hence the misleading name. Some of this family resemble some of the Borages, but the stamens are long, the styles are two, at least above, and the ovary has not the four conspicuous lobes of the latter family.
There are many kinds of Phacelia, hairy plants, with no appendages between the sepals; resembling Hydrophyllum, except that the petals overlap in the bud, instead of being rolled up, and the seeds are different. The name is from the Greek, meaning "cluster."