Eriastrum densifolium subsp. sanctorum

Santa ana river woolly-star, Santa Ana River Woollystar

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1 · Endangered

Santa ana river woolly-star is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native shrub found in eastern Santa Clara Mountains in the Santa Ana River drainage of southwestern San Bernardino County, growing in washes, floodplains, and sandbars in alluvial scrub and chaparral at elevations of 270 to 800 meters. Flowering from June to July, this plant produces purple to lavender to white flowers with blue to pale blue lobes, arranged in dense terminal heads 4 to 30 flowers wide. Growing 25 to 75 centimeters tall with mostly erect stems and well-developed short shoots, it features densely white-woolly branches with distinctive axillary growth. Its leaves are 25 to 50 millimeters long, gray-green to white-woolly, with 0 to 7 small lobes and a somewhat rigid texture. The fruit is a capsule approximately 5.5 to 5.8 millimeters long, typically containing 2 to 11 brown, elliptic seeds per chamber.

Habitat: Washes, floodplains, sandbars in riverbeds, in alluvial scrub, chaparral

Bloom period: Jun-Jul

Elevation: 270-800 m

Bioregions: e SCo (Santa Ana River drainage, sw San Bernardino Co.).

California counties: San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside

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