Eriodictyon tomentosum

Woolly yerba santa

Family: Namaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Woolly yerba santa is a California native shrub found in southern coastal ranges on slopes, ridges, and in grassland and chaparral habitats at elevations of 150 to 1,400 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces white to lavender flowers in small urn-shaped clusters with delicate stalked glands. Growing one to three meters tall with densely white-woolly twigs, it forms a robust and distinctive shrub with a spreading habit. Its leaves are oblanceolate to oblong, three to ten centimeters long, densely covered in white felt-like hairs and ranging from entirely smooth to coarsely toothed. The shrub's white-tomentose foliage and delicate flowers make it a notable and textural landscape element in California's coastal ecosystems.

Habitat: Slopes, ridges, ravines, disturbed areas, grassland, chaparral

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 150-1400 m

Bioregions: SCoR.

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito, Kern, Fresno, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Kings, Riverside

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