   | Description: Thick Leaf Yerba Santa is an aromatic, erect, evergreen shrub growing 3 to 10 feet tall. The stems, sepals, and both sides of leaves are covered with a dense gray-green felt. The alternate leaves are sticky, oval-lanceolate, coarsely toothed and about 6 inches long. The many pale lavender flowers, about ˝ inch long, are tubular and displayed in branched, coiled inflorescence. Yerba Santa blooms in Chaparral and Coastal Sage communities from April through June. It grows especially well in sunny open spaces resulting after fires but is a fairly short-lived since other plants eventually crowd it out.
Native American and early Spanish settlers used Yerba Santa or “saintly herb” as a common remedy for fevers, respiratory infections, and binding wounds. Some Indians even smoked or chewed dried leaves.
Eriodictyon is Greek for “hairy net” and refers to the leaf underside, while crassifolium is translated as “thick leaf”. Color: blue/purple/violet
Season: March, April, May, June, July,
Community: Chaparral, Coastal Sage Scrub,
Use: Medicinal, Horticultural,
Origin: Native |
