Eriastrum filifolium

Thread-leaved woolly-star

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Thread-leaved woolly-star is a California native annual found in northwestern Santa Barbara County and southwestern California in wash bottoms, chaparral, coastal sagebrush scrub, and grassland areas at elevations of 35 to 940 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces pale yellow to white flowers with distinctive light- to royal-blue or occasionally lavender corolla lobes. Growing 3 to 40 centimeters tall with erect to ascending stems that are lightly woolly and sometimes branched from the base, it develops thread-like leaves that often turn red-brown with age. Its delicate leaves are typically 10 to 35 millimeters long, thread-like or occasionally 5-lobed, with a sparse woolly texture. The fruit is a small capsule 4 to 5 millimeters long, containing 3 to 5 angular tan to light brown seeds.

Habitat: Wash bottoms, floodplains, ditches, slopes, ridges, disturbed areas, in chaparral, coastal sagebrush scrub, grassland

Bloom period: Apr-May

Elevation: 35-940 m

Bioregions: SCoRO (nw Santa Barbara Co.), SW

California counties: Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Inyo, Kern, Ventura, Alpine, Mono

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