Common Name: narrowleaf yerba santa

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Shrub

General: Spreading shrub to 2 m tall, with shredding bark on older branches, glabrous and sticky on younger stems.

Leaves: Lanceolate to narrowly linear with toothed and revolute margins, dark green and usually resinous sticky to glabrous above, white tomentose beneath, 2-5 mm wide, 3-10 cm long.

Flowers: Clusters of white flowers crowd at the branch tips in scorpioid cymes of terminal panicles, calyx lobes sparsely hirsutulous 2-3 mm long, green, corollas of individual flowers funnelform and deeply lobed, 4-7 mm long, appearing as 5 petals, white to sometimes tending towards lilac.

Fruits: Small, ovoid 4-valved capsules about 2 mm long.

Ecology: Found on dry, rocky slopes in chapparal country, from 2,000-7,000 ft (610-2134 m); flowers April-August.

Distribution: Ranges from California to Nevada and Utah, south to Arizona and south further to Baja California.

Notes: The sticky, aromatic leaves with their deep dark green color and the light colored tomentose below are good diagnostics for this species.

Ethnobotany: Decoction of the leaves and stems used as a wash for cuts, indigestion, laxative, antidiarrheal, dermatological aid, a gastrointestinal aid, and a laxative. Decoction of leaves taken for vomiting, coughs, expectorant, tuberculosis, stomachaches, and for rheumatism.

Etymology: Eriodictyon is derived from Green erion for wool and diktuon for net, a reference to the underside of the leaves, while angustifolium means narrow leaved.

Synonyms: Eriodictyon angustifolium var. amplifolium

Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011