About Trichostema austromontanum F.H.Lewis ex K.S.McClell. & Weakley
Trichostema austromontanum is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, commonly called San Jacinto bluecurls. It is native to California, where it grows from the mountains east of the Sierra Nevada to the Transverse Ranges and Peninsular Ranges, and its range extends south into Baja California. This species grows in wet mountain meadows and on lake shores. It is an annual herb that reaches a maximum height of close to half a meter, and its aromatic foliage is covered in both glandular and nonglandular hairs. Its leaves are elongated or lance-shaped, and measure 2 to 5 centimeters long. Its inflorescence is made up of a series of flower clusters that grow at each leaf pair. Each flower has a hairy calyx of pointed sepals and a tubular, lipped purple corolla, with four long, curved stamens. There are two subspecies of Trichostema austromontanum. The rarer subspecies, ssp. compactum, commonly called Hidden Lake bluecurls, is only known from a single location at Hidden Lake, a small seasonal alpine lake in the San Jacinto Mountains of Riverside County, California. This subspecies is a federally listed threatened species in the United States. The main threat to its survival is trampling by hikers and sightseers.
