About Eriastrum pluriflorum (A.Heller) H.Mason
Eriastrum pluriflorum is a small annual plant that grows between 2 and 25 centimeters tall, forming an erect bunch or small ground patch. Its stem bears occasional narrow, thready leaves a few centimeters long, and the whole stem is covered in woolly hairs. Its inflorescence is a cluster of spindly bracts thickly covered in dense, cobwebby wool, and holds many distinctive trumpet-shaped flowers. Each flower has a very narrow throat tube 1 to 2 centimeters long that opens out into a flat corolla. The corolla is around one centimeter wide, with five rounded to diamond-shaped lobes that range in color from bright lavender to blue. The flower throat may match the lobe color, or be yellowish to reddish. Light-colored stamens protrude out from the corolla. This wildflower is endemic to California. It is an uncommon resident of diverse chaparral and woodland habitats in central California, growing from the Inner South California Coast Ranges and northwestern Transverse Ranges, across the San Joaquin Valley to the Sierra Nevada and Tehachapi Mountains, and into the western Mojave Desert.
