''Eriodictyon tomentosum'' is a species of flowering plant in the

borage family Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees, and herbs in 146 to 154 genera with a worldwide distribution. The APG IV system from 2016 classifies the Boraginaceae as single family of the order ...

known by the common name woolly yerba santa. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, where it grows on the slopes of the central

coast ranges The Pacific Coast Ranges (officially gazetted as the Pacific Mountain System in the United States; ; ) are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. Althoug ...

Description

''Eriodictyon tomentosum'' is a

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

reaching a maximum height of one to three meters. Its twigs and foliage are covered in a dense coat of white woolly hairs, giving the bush a silvery look. The leaves are oval and up to ten centimeters long and five wide, and they may have small teeth along the edges. The bush flowers in dense fuzzy bunches of very light lavender glandular blossoms, each a few millimeters long. The fruit is a tiny capsule less than three millimeters wide, containing about 10 minute seeds.

Distribution

This shrub can be found only in the California Coast Ranges, where it occurs in grassland and chaparral plant communities.''Eriodictyon tomentosum''.
Jepson eFlora. Jepson Flora Project. 2017.

References

External links

''Eriodictyon tomentosum''.
CalFlora.
CalPhotos.
tomentosum Endemic flora of California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Hydrophylloideae-stub