Southwest Desert Flora

Scientific Name: Eriastrum eremicum
Common Name: Desert Woolystar
Also Called: Desert Eriastrum, Desert Woolstar
Family: Polemoniaceae, Jacob’s Ladder or Phlox Family
Synonyms: ()
Status: Native
Duration: Annual, perennial;
Size: Up to 12 inches more or less.
Growth Form: Forb/herb;
Leaves: Green; alternate, pinnately lobed or simple, lobes linear to lanceolate.
Flower Color: Blue to whitish, pink; flowers in dense, leafy-bracted heads, cobwebby with long fine white hairs, calyx lobes generally unequal, corolla funnel-shaped, stamens equal or not, style included or not (exserted), fruit with 1 or few per chamber.
Flowering Season: March to June.
Elevation: Up to 5,000 feet.

Habitat Preferences: Common on dry plains and mesas.

Recorded Range: Eriastrum eremicum is found in the southwestern United States, Baja California and likely northwestern Mexico.

North America & US County Distribution Map for Eriastrum eremicum.

U.S. Weed Information: No information available.
Invasive/Noxious Weed Information: No information available.
Wetland Indicator: No information available.
Threatened/Endangered Information: No information available.

The Plant List includes 16 are accepted species names for the genus Eriastrum (Note minor discrepancy above).

There are 2 sub-species in Eriastrum eremicum:
Eriastrum eremicum subsp. eremicum, Desert Woollystar (AZ, CA, NV, UT)
Eriastrum eremicum subsp. yageri, Yager's Woollystar (AZ, NV)

Comments: Miniature Woollystar and Desert Woolystar are superficially similar in appearance, the differences are primarily technical.

Also see in Southwest Desert Flora; Miniature Woollystar, Eriastrum diffusum.

A drug of Desert Woolystar is made and used by the Paiute for diarrhea, as a stomach medicine is used with children with tuberculosis See ethno-botanical uses at Native American Ethnobotany, University of Michigan, Dearborn.