Semi-desert. Openings. Spring.
Corona Arch Trail, Utah, April 13, 2005.

This delicate and lovely flower is relatively uncommon in sandy/gravelly soils, often in the Blackbrush community, but it can be abundant when it finds just the right conditions.  Amsonia tomentosa's flowers are about an inch in diameter in clusters of up to a dozen; the plant grows over two feet tall; and it is easy to spot because of the abundance of flower clusters and the straw-like residue of last year's flower stalks and seed pods.  Bluestar stems are often curled over with the weight of the new flower heads.

Charles Amson was an 18th century Virginia physician and traveler.  "Tomentosa" is Latin for "dense hairs". Alice Eastwood (1859-1953), for whom this species was first named, was a Denver high school teacher, plant collector, and author honored in a number of plant names.  Per Axel Rydberg collected the first specimen of this plant in 1911 near Moab and he named it for Alice Eastwood in 1913. (More biographical information.)

Semi-desert. Openings. Spring.
Corona Arch Trail, Utah, April 1, 2004.

Semi-desert. Openings. Spring.
Corona Arch Trail, Utah, April 13, 2005.

Semi-desert. Openings. Spring.
Corona Arch Trail, Utah, April 13, 2005.

Semi-desert. Openings. Spring.
Corona Arch Trail, Utah, June 7, 2007.

Seed pods are several inches long and remain dried and rattling on the plant long after the pods have opened and spilled the seeds.