[7] The first recorded specimen of Yreka phlox was discovered by Edward Lee Greene in 1876.

[2] Greene was the priest at St. Laurence's Episcopal Church in Yreka (since renamed as St. Mark's) from 1876 to 1877, when he made the discovery; he later became the first botanist at the University of California, Berkeley.

[3] The discovery was recorded in 1899 by Elias Nelson, who described its location as "rocky hilltops near Yreka, Siskiyou County, California".

[3] In 1975, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution included Phlox hirsuta on a list of endangered plants.

[3] A recovery plan was drafted by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2006, and was dedicated to the memory of Larry G. Bacon, the city attorney of Yreka from 1970 to 2002, who had been a leader of local efforts to protect the species.