Eriodictyon californicum

California yerba santa

Family: Namaceae · Type: shrub · Native

California yerba santa is a California native shrub found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, and central western California in slopes, fields, roadsides, woodland, and chaparral at elevations of 20 to 1,830 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white to purple flowers in funnel-shaped corollas 8 to 12 millimeters long. Growing with erect stems 1 to 3 meters tall that are glabrous and sticky, it forms a distinctive shrubby habit. Its leaves are lanceolate to oblong, up to 15 centimeters long, with margins rolled under and a sticky upper surface that is glabrous to sparsely hairy, while the lower surface shows a distinctive net-like pattern of hair between the veins. The fruit contains 2 to 20 seeds, highlighting the plant's reproductive capacity in diverse habitats.

Habitat: Slopes, fields, roadsides, woodland, chaparral

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 20-1830 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, GV, CW

California counties: Humboldt, Mendocino, Monterey, Tulare, Colusa, Glenn, Santa Cruz, Trinity, Del Norte, Lake, Fresno, Shasta, Nevada, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Siskiyou, Tehama, Butte, Santa Clara, Kern, Napa, Marin, Yolo, Solano, Tuolumne, Placer, El Dorado, Plumas, Madera, Mariposa, San Luis Obispo, Calaveras, Sutter, Stanislaus, Amador, San Benito, Yuba, Sierra, San Francisco, Sonoma, Alameda, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Kings, Inyo, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, Riverside

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