Hosackia incana

Woolly lotus

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Woolly lotus is a California native perennial found in northern and central Sierra Nevada in dry slopes and open pine forest at elevations of 800 to 1,700 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces distinctive two-colored red and white flowers approximately 12 to 15 millimeters long with white claws extending from the calyx tube. Growing with silky gray or silvery erect stems clustered 10 to 25 centimeters tall, it has a distinctively canescent appearance. Its leaves comprise 7 to 13 elliptic to obovate leaflets each 8 to 16 millimeters long, with scarious stipules. The fruit is a linear pod 1.5 to 3.5 centimeters long, containing a few seeds.

Habitat: dry slopes, open pine forest

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: 800-1700 m

Bioregions: n&ampc SN.

California counties: El Dorado, Butte, Plumas, Sierra, Tehama, Nevada, Mariposa, Placer, Mendocino, Yuba

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