Doellingeria tomentella

Brickellbush aster, Brickellbush Aster

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Brickellbush aster is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges and northern Coast Ranges in open oak and conifer woodland at elevations of 1,300 to 2,400 meters. Flowering from July to October, this plant produces pale violet ray flowers with discoid or few-rayed flower heads arranged in cyme-like clusters. Growing with stems 40 to 90 centimeters tall and densely covered in fine, soft white hairs, it has a distinctive wooly appearance. Its leaves are lanceolate to elliptic, 3 to 6 centimeters long, with a somewhat dense white-woolly underside and relatively smooth upper surface. The flower heads feature unequal phyllaries with green midveins and tips that range from green to purple, creating a subtle color variation.

Habitat: Uncommon. Open oak or conifer woodland, rocky places

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: 1300-2400 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRI

California counties: Siskiyou, Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Butte, Glenn, Trinity, Shasta

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.