Eriastrum calocyanum

Pretty blue woolly-star

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Pretty blue woolly-star is a California native annual found in the central Coast Ranges and southern Sierra Nevada foothills in open benches along creeks, chaparral, and mixed woodland at elevations of 400 to 1,300 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces light blue or lavender to deep royal blue flowers with delicate white throats, often featuring a dark reddish or purplish spot at the base of each petal. Growing 4 to 25 centimeters tall with erect, sometimes branched stems that have a distinctive zig-zag form and are densely covered in woolly hairs. Its leaves are 7 to 35 millimeters long, also woolly in texture, and can be entire or divided into 4 linear to thread-like lobes. The small capsule fruit is approximately 3 to 4 millimeters long, containing a single seed in each chamber.

Habitat: Open benches along creeks, chaparral, mixed woodland

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: 400-1300 m

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