California Yerba Santa, showing flowers © Walt Anderson

shrub

Description A weedy-looking, branching, evergreen shrub with resinous, aromatic leaves.
Height: 2-8' (0.6-2.4 m).
Flowers: 1/2" (12 mm), bluish or white, trumpet-shaped, at tops of stems; bloom April–July.
Leaves: tp 6" (15 cm) long, lanceolate, toothed, wavy, woolly below.
Fruit: tiny capsule containing 2-8 seeds.

Habitat Dry rocky slopes, roadsides, chaparral, foothill woodlands.

Range Coast and Klamath Ranges in northern California south to Monterey, and Sierra Nevada north into southern Oregon.

Discussion The aromatic resins in the leaves (especially older plants) make them unpalatable to livestock. On rangelands, cattle will often eat all other vegetation, leaving California Yerba Santa free to expand into pure stands without competition from other plants.