From the Greek stachus for “ear of grain” or “a spike,” in reference to the spike-like form of the flowers
Species
chamissonis
After Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838), a French-born German botanist who botanized with J.F. Eschscholtz in the San Francisco Bay region in 1816 and accompanied him on a Russian expedition in search of the Northwest Passage
var.
cooleyae
After American botanist Grace Emily Cooley (1857-1916), author of Impressions of Alaska: with a List of Plants Collected in Alaska and Nanaimo, B.C. (1892)
ID is uncertain 
