Eriodictyon altissimum

Indian knob mountainbalm, Indian Knob Mountainbalm

Family: Namaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1 · Endangered

Indian knob mountainbalm is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native shrub found in southwestern San Luis Obispo County's chaparral on sandstone ridges at elevations below 270 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces lavender flowers in funnel-shaped corollas 11 to 16 millimeters long. Growing two to four meters tall with glabrous, sticky twigs, it forms an upright shrub with distinctive foliage. Its linear leaves are five to nine centimeters long, extremely narrow at 0.2 to 0.4 centimeters wide, with strongly rolled margins and a white-tomentose undersurface that obscures most leaf veins. The shrub's sticky stems and leaves, combined with its lavender flowers, make it a distinctive chaparral species.

Habitat: Sandstone ridges, chaparral

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 270 m

Bioregions: SCoRO (sw San Luis Obispo Co.).

California counties: San Luis Obispo, San Bernardino

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