| Pacific Yerba Santa |
| Eriodictyon traskia |
| Family: Boraginaceae (Borage) |
| Flowers — color: white, size: 1/8", type: 5 petals |
Tubular flowers flare to a trumpet with five petals, about 1/8" diameter. The flowers here are white to pale lavender, but may shade to violet in other regions. The flowers emerge from a tight cluster of buds, roughly one inch diameter, from April to August.
Habit:
Pacific Yerba Santa is a dense mounding shrub that may reach six feet tall. Thick pale green leaves have a rough top and woolly under surface, as suggested by the genus name. The leaves edges are smoothly scalloped with teeeth every 1/4".
The rare Lompoc Yerba Santa, Eriodictyon capitatum, grows only around BMER and Gaviota. It has very narrow dark green leaves and pinker flowers. I hope to find one on my walks.
The common name translates as holy herb. The Chumash used several species of yerba santa for respiratory ailments and aches and pains, either as tea or a poultice from leaves. Modern herbalists focus on a different species, E. californicum, that ranges from Paso Robles northward.
I found this growing along an old oilfield driveway east of the VVCSD water tanks. Here, Yerba Santa seems to take the role, dominant shrub, that black sage plays in most parts of BMER. Sunny or part shade.