Eriastrum pluriflorum

Many-flowered woolly-star

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Many-flowered woolly-star is a California native annual found in desert and foothill regions in open sandy or rocky habitats at elevations of 300 to 2,000 meters. Flowering from April to July, this delicate plant produces white to blue or purple flowers with intricate color variations, ranging from pale cream throats to lavender or blue-purple lobes often marked with darker veins. Growing 10 to 40 centimeters tall with erect stems that are initially woolly and becoming more sparse with age, the plant forms compact clusters up to 50 centimeters wide. Its leaves are thread-like to linear, measuring 6 to 40 millimeters long, and can be entire or occasionally divided into 2 to 13 narrow segments. The fruit is a small capsule 2 to 5 millimeters long, containing angular tan or gray-brown seeds.

California counties: Riverside, Kern, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Fresno, Kings, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Merced, Stanislaus, Tulare, Alameda, Madera, San Benito, Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Joaquin, Mariposa, Contra Costa

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