Eriastrum sapphirinum subsp. ambiguum

SHORT-BRACT 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: SAPPHIRE WOOLLY-STAR
Habit: Annual, 3--54 cm, erect to spreading, simple or branched from base or above. Stem: herbage viscid-glandular-hairy on upper stems or throughout, subglabrous to white-woolly, often subglabrous in age. Leaf: 4--44(55) mm, glabrous to woolly, glandular or not, entire to 5-(rarely 7-)lobed near base, lobes linear. Inflorescence: heads terminal (rarely axillary), generally 1 per branch, subglabrous to densely woolly, 1--12-flowered, peduncles generally glandular; bracts glandular, sparsely to densely woolly. Flower: calyx 4--8.5 mm, glandular-puberulent, lightly to densely woolly, lobes subequal to unequal; corolla 7--15 mm, broadly funnel-shaped to sub-salverform, radial to somewhat bilateral, tube 2.3--6.1 mm, +- 1/4 or 1/3 corolla length, white to light purple or blue, throat 0.5--3.5 mm, sometimes asymmetric with upper side > lower from differing heights of sinuses, white to purple, sometimes with yellow patches or dots, tube + throat 3--7.7 mm, lobes 3.5--8.3(10) mm, +- 1/3 to almost 2/3 corolla length, lavender, dark to pale blue, white, cream, or occasionally pale yellow, veins sometimes darker, often with dark blue or purple or reddish spots or streaks, abaxial lobes sometimes pale yellow; stamens exserted +- 2.3--5.9(7) mm past corolla sinuses, +- 2.0 mm < corolla lobes to +- 1 mm longer, attached (0.3)0.7--4 mm below sinuses, free portion 5--10 mm, equal to unequal, filaments white to blue to purple, bases sometimes yellow, anthers 1.5--3.25 mm; pistil 8--13 mm, equal to or slightly > stamens, ovules (1)2--7 per ovary chamber. Fruit: capsule 3--5 mm, broadly elliptic, seeds generally 1--4 per chamber, other ovules present but abortive. Seed: +- 1.2--2.4 mm, tan to gray-brown, elliptic to angular.