Acanthogilia is a genus with a single species of desert shrub from Baja California

Baja California

Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...

, Mexico. It was first scientifically described as a genus in 1986.

Classification

Its closest relatives within the family Polemoniaceae

Polemoniaceae

Polemoniaceae are a family of about 25 genera with 270-400 species of annual and perennial plants, native to the Northern Hemisphere and South America, with the center of diversity in western North America, especially in California.Only one genus is found in Europe, and two in Asia, where they...

 are not clear. Some evidence suggests it was first to diverge from the ancestral member of that family, some puts it in a group with Bonplandia, Cobaea

Cobaea

Cobaea is a genus of flowering plants including about 20 species of rapid growing, ornamental annual or perennial climbers from Tropical America, native to Mexico. The botanical name is honored for Father Cobo, Spanish Jesuit of the seventeenth century, naturalist, and resident of America for many...

, and Cantua

Cantua

Cantua is a genus of flowering plants in the family Polemoniaceae which is in the order Ericales.They are restricted to central South America where many species are endemics in the countries of occurrence....

, and some say that those three genera diverged first, followed by Acanthogilia (followed by the rest of the family).