[3] It is native to much of western North America from Alaska to northern Mexico, and it can be found on the eastern side of the continent as an introduced species as it is used in pollinator gardens.

[4] Gilia capitata is an annual herb[3] that is somewhat variable in appearance, with branching, leafy stems reaching anywhere from 10 to 90 centimeters in maximum height and sometimes having glandular hairs on the fleshy herbage.

The leaves are divided into toothed or lobed leaflets.

Atop the branches of the thick stem are spherical inflorescences of 50 to 100 small flowers.

Each flower has a throat opening into a spreading corolla which may be white, pink, lavender, or light blue.