Amsonia tomentosa,with its delicate and lovely flowers, is relatively uncommon, but when it is found it usually is in sandy/gravelly soils, often in the Blackbrush community where it can be common.  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 about Amson.  More biographical information about Eastwood.)

Flowers are delicate shades of lavendar; flower buds are twisted (see lower right of this photograph and lower left of the next photograph).

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Amsonia tomentosa