Eriastrum eremicum subsp. eremicum

Desert woolly-star

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Desert woolly-star is a California native annual found in the Sonoran Desert and eastern Sierra Nevada in washes, flats, playas, and desert scrub habitats at elevations of 100 to 1,760 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces white to lavender or pale blue flowers with violet, blue, or nearly white lobes, often featuring darker purplish or reddish streaks on the flower veins. Growing 2 to 30 centimeters tall with much-branched stems that are green and woolly when young and turning dark reddish-brown with age, it spreads up to 40 centimeters wide. Its leaves are lightly woolly, featuring 5 to 9 lobes with lateral lobes 2 to 10 millimeters long, sometimes becoming reddish-brown as the plant matures. The fruit is a small tan capsule approximately 2.5 to 3.1 millimeters long, containing angular, sand-colored seeds.

Habitat: Washes, flats, playas, bajadas, hillsides, dunes, in desert scrub, arid woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Jun(Aug--Sep)

Elevation: 100-1760 m

Bioregions: SNE, D

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Kern, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial, Los Angeles, Mono, Nevada

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