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Vascular Plants of California
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Eriastrum virgatum
WAND WOOLLY-STAR, VIRGATE ERIASTRUM


Higher Taxonomy
Family: PolemoniaceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key
Common Name: PHLOX FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, shrub, vine. Leaf: simple or compound, cauline (or most basal), alternate or opposite; stipules 0. Inflorescence: cymes, heads, clusters, or flower 1; bracts in involucres or not. Flower: sepals generally 5, fused at base, translucent membrane generally connecting lobes, torn by fruit; corolla generally 5-lobed, radial or bilateral, salverform to bell-shaped, throat often well defined; stamens generally 5, epipetalous, attached at >= 1 level, filaments of >= 1 length, pollen white, yellow, blue, or red; ovary superior, chambers generally 3, style 1, stigmas generally 3. Fruit: capsule. Seed: 1--many, when wetted swelling or not, gelatinous or not.
Genera In Family: 26 genera, 314 species: America, northern Europe, northern Asia; some cultivated (Cantua, Cobaea (cup-and-saucer vine), Collomia, Gilia, Ipomopsis, Linanthus, Phlox). Note: Leptodactylon moved to Linanthus.
eFlora Treatment Author: Robert W. Patterson, family description, key to genera, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Robert W. Patterson, Thomas J. Rosatti.
Genus: EriastrumView DescriptionDichotomous Key


Common Name: WOOLLY-STAR
Habit: Annual, perennial, or subshrub; often woolly, glandular or not. Stem: generally erect, branching from base or above, sometimes unbranched. Leaf: cauline, alternate, entire to pinnately lobed; lobes generally linear or lanceolate. Inflorescence: terminal, head-like or flower occasionally 1, bracted, lightly to densely woolly; bracts leaf-like; flowers sessile or subsessile. Flower: calyx lobes equal to unequal, lightly to densely woolly, sometimes glandular-puberulent; corolla funnel-shaped to salverform, radial or bilateral, white or blue to purple or yellow; stamens fused to corolla at base, equal or unequal, anthers sagittate, pollen white to blue; ovary 3-chambered, style included or exserted, stigma 3-lobed. Fruit: capsule loculicidal. Seed: 1--11 per chamber.
Etymology: (Greek: woolly star)
eFlora Treatment Author: Sarah J. De Groot
Reference: De Groot 2016 Aliso 34(2):25--152.
Eriastrum virgatum (Benth.) H. Mason
NATIVE
Habit: Annual, 3--40(50) cm, erect, wand-like and unbranched, or branched above, occasionally branched from base. Stem: lightly woolly to subglabrous. Leaf: 15--50 mm, lightly woolly, entire to 3(rarely 5)-lobed, lobes linear to thread-like. Inflorescence: heads often terminal, sometimes axillary, woolly, 3--20-flowered. Flower: calyx 8--12 mm, woolly, lobes unequal; corolla 15--23 mm, funnel-shaped, tube +- 8.5--12 mm, +- equaling calyx, +- 1/2 corolla length, white to pale yellowish, sometimes with purplish ring at distal end, throat +- 1--3 mm, white distally and yellow proximally, tube + throat 10.5--14.9 mm, lobes 5.8--9.5 mm, bright blue, sometimes with darker blue or purplish spot at base or darker veins; stamens exserted 4.8--6.5 mm beyond corolla sinus, attached 0.9--2.7 mm below sinuses, free portion 6--11 mm, unequal or subequal, anthers 2--3 mm; pistil 12.5--20.5 mm. Fruit: capsule 4--5.5 mm, seeds 2--4 (occasionally 5) per chamber. Seed: +- 1.5--3.2 mm, gray-brown, mostly elliptic to slightly ovate. Chromosomes: 2n=14.
Ecology: Floodplains, hillsides, old dunes, in scrub, chaparral, or woodland; Elevation: 9--550 m. Bioregional Distribution: CCo, n SCoR (Monterey, San Benito cos.). Flowering Time: May--Jun
Jepson eFlora Author: Sarah J. De Groot
Reference: De Groot 2016 Aliso 34(2):25--152.
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
Listed on CNPS Rare Plant Inventory

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Citation for this treatment: Sarah J. De Groot 2023, Eriastrum virgatum, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, Revision 12, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=24599, accessed on April 16, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 16, 2024.

Eriastrum virgatum
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©2014 Neal Kramer
Eriastrum virgatum
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©2023 Dylan Neubauer
Eriastrum virgatum
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©2014 Neal Kramer
Eriastrum virgatum
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©2013 Neal Kramer
Eriastrum virgatum
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©2009 Keir Morse

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Geographic subdivisions for Eriastrum virgatum:
CCo, n SCoR (Monterey, San Benito cos.).
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map of distribution 1
(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).





 

Data provided by the participants of the  Consortium of California Herbaria.
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CCH collections by month

Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).