Eriastrum diffusum subsp. diffusum

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: SPREADING WOOLLY-STAR
Habit: Annual, often diffusely branched from base or above, or unbranched in small plants, densely woolly to subglabrous. Stem: erect or spreading, 1--25 cm, thin, wiry, generally subglabrous, often brown. Leaf: 4--26 mm, lobes 0 or 1--5, lateral lobes 1--7.5 mm. Inflorescence: terminal, lightly to densely woolly, 3--20-flowered. Flower: calyx 4--7.5 mm, woolly, sometimes glandular, lobes subequal to unequal; corolla generally 5.5--11(12) mm, funnel-shaped, tube (2)3--5.6 mm, white, straight or curved, throat +- 0.5--2 mm, yellow or yellow-spotted, tube + throat 3.4--7 mm, lobes 1.5--4 mm, blue to cream or white, sometimes with reddish dots or stripes at base; stamens exserted 0.5--2.3 mm beyond corolla sinuses, attached +- 0.3--1.5 mm below sinus, free portion 1--3.5 mm, subequal to unequal, anthers +- 0.4--1 mm; pistil 3.9--8.4 mm, ovules +- 2--7 per ovary chamber. Fruit: capsule +- 2.7--4 mm, tan. Seed: +- 1--1.7 mm, tan to light brown, mostly angular.