Eriastrum pluriflorum

Taxobox
name = "Eriastrum pluriflorum"


image_width = 225px
image_caption =
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
subclassis = Asteridae
ordo = Ericales
familia = Polemoniaceae
genus = "Eriastrum"
species = "E. pluriflorum"
binomial = "Eriastrum pluriflorum"
binomial_authority = (A.Heller) H. Mason

"Eriastrum pluriflorum" is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common names Tehachapi woollystar and many-flowered eriastrum. This wildflower is endemic to California where it is an uncommon resident of varied chaparral and woodland habitats in the central part of the state from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Mojave Desert. This is a small annual plant which may be anywhere from 2 to 25 centimeters in height, forming an erect bunch or a small patch on the ground. Its stem has the occasional narrow, thready leaf a few centimeters in length and coated in woolly hairs. The inflorescence is a mass of spindly bracts strung thickly with dense, cobwebby wool and bearing many distinctive trumpet-shaped flowers. Each flower has a very narrow throat tube one to two centimeters long ending in a flat faced corolla. The centimeter-wide corolla has five rounded to diamond-shaped lobes which are bright lavender to blue. The throat of the flower may be the same color or yellowish to reddish. The light-colored stamens protrude from the corolla.

External links

* [http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?5654,5671,5685 Jepson Manual Treatment]
* [http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ERPL2 USDA Plants Profile]
* [http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_index&where-taxon=Eriastrum+pluriflorum Photo gallery]