Eriastrum sparsiflorum

Few-flowered woolly-star

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Few-flowered woolly-star is a California native annual found in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, southern Modoc Plateau, and southern eastern Sierra Nevada in open sunny areas, scrub, chaparral, and woodland at elevations of 940 to 2,020 meters. Flowering from May to July, this delicate plant produces very pale blue or lavender to white or cream flowers with white throats often marked with subtle purple dots. Growing 10 to 31 centimeters tall with slender stems that are minutely glandular-hairy, it develops a light woolly texture. Its leaves are 5 to 30 millimeters long, generally entire, with occasional linear to thread-like lobes near the base. The fruit is an oblong capsule containing one to three seeds that develop a slime coating when wet.

Habitat: Open sunny areas on flats, hillsides, small washes, floodplains, disturbed areas, in scrub, chaparral, woodland

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 940-2020 m

Bioregions: SNH, s MP, SNE (exc W&ampI)

California counties: San Bernardino, Kern, Mono, Inyo, Los Angeles, Tulare, Modoc, Lassen, San Luis Obispo, Alpine, Plumas, Siskiyou, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Ventura, San Diego, Sierra

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