Eriastrum densifolium subsp. patens

SPREADING WOOLLY-STAR

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.

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.

Common Name: PERENNIAL WOOLLY-STAR, GIANT WOOLLY-STAR
Habit: Subshrub or perennial herb from woody caudex, glabrous to woolly. Stem: 8--90 cm, erect or spreading, often branched from base and sometimes above, outer layers sometimes flaking, axillary short shoots sometimes present. Leaf: 10--50 mm, woolly to subglabrous, lobes 0 or 1--15, linear to lanceolate. Inflorescence: generally terminal, sometimes persisting, lightly to densely woolly, flowers 1--40+. Flower: calyx 5--11 mm, woolly, sometimes glandular, lobes equal or subequal to unequal; corolla 10.5--33 mm, radial, funnel-shaped to salverform, tube 4.5--19.5 mm, white to pale blue, lavender, pink, or purple, base sometimes yellowish, throat +- 0.9--5.7 mm, white to pale blue to lavender, occasionally purple, pale yellow, or pink, tube plus throat 6.4--23 mm, lobes 3.5--11 mm, white to deep blue, veins often darker blue or purple, occasionally spotted; stamens exserted 2.1--7 mm beyond corolla sinuses, equaling or < corolla lobes, attached <= 3 mm below sinus, free portion of stamen 4--10 mm, equal to subequal, anthers 2--4 mm; pistil +- 11.5--30 mm, shorter in younger flowers, style +- 10--27 mm, white to pale blue, lavender, or purple, stigma lobes 0.5--1.5 mm, often white. Fruit: capsule +- (1.3)2.5--6 mm, tan, seeds generally +- 1--11 per chamber. Seed: (1.3)1.8--3.5 mm, tan to brown or gray-brown, elliptic to oblong or angular.
Note: Probably a species complex, needs study.