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Giant woollystar

Eriastrum densifolium

Giant woollystar
Photo: Anthony Valois and the National Park Service, Public domain
Family
Polemoniaceae (Polemoni family)
Grows as
Shrub
Native range
California to NW. Mexico
Climate
temperate

About

Eriastrum densifolium is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name giant woollystar. This wildflower is native to California and Baja California where it grows in open areas such as sand dunes and dry washes. It grows on an erect stem with slightly hairy to densely woolly foliage, often giving the plant a dark gray-green color. The leaves are narrow and spike-shaped with pointed lobes. The top of each stem is occupied by a bunched inflorescence full of woolly leaflike bracts and funnel-shaped, flat-faced flowers. The flowers are each 1 to 3 centimeters long with a face up to three or four centimeters wide. The lobes are white to bright, striking blue, sometimes with longitudinal pinstripes. The stamens protrude from the throat.

There are two subspecies of this plant. The rarer, ssp.

Other Eriastrum plants

Abrams' woollystar · Brandegee's woollystar · Miniature woollystar · Desert woollystar · Hoover's woollystar · Yellow woollystar · Tehachapi woollystar · Sapphire woollystar · Great Basin woollystar · Wand woollystar · Wilcox's woollystar · Woollystar

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Eriastrum densifolium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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