| Author | Walter | |
| Distribution | Nearly throughout the Sandhills, though mysteriously not yet recorded from heavily surveyed Cumberland County, nor from adjacent Harnett County. Also ranges eastward into the adjacent central Coastal Plain, to Sampson and Bladen counties. Barely ranges into the extreme eastern edge of the Piedmont -- Anson County (current) and Wake County (historical).
This is a Southern species, with a two-part range. The eastern part occurs from southern NC south to southern FL and west to AL; the western grows from southern MO into central TX. | |
| Abundance | Infrequent in the Sandhills, though reasonably widespread. Rare to uncommon farther eastward. Extremely rare in the southeastern corner of the Piedmont. | |
| Habitat | This species favors sandy soil of xeric pine/scrub oak sandhills. It also occurs on sand ridges, sandy clearings, and other dry sandy openings. It is not one of the scarce sandhill species of more mesic/loamy soil that needs frequent fire for its survival. | |
| Phenology | Blooms mainly in April, and fruits do not ripen until September and October. | |
| Identification | This is an herbaceous species with often multiple stems, growing to 1-2 feet tall; a stem may have a few short branches in the upper portions. The stem and leaves are quite hairy. This species has a very large number of alternate leaves, each being very narrow and ascending (or gently arcing away from the stem); they average about 2-3 inches long but only about 1/4-inch wide. No other sandhills plant really looks like this one, with its many needle-like and ascending leaves, but in bloom it is quite striking. The flowers grow in a terminal cluster (at the end of the stem or branch) a few inches across. Each flower is pale (Carolina) blue, star-shaped, and about 3/4-inch across, with a slender pale blue tube at the base of the flower. Though a single plant in bloom is quite showy, thankfully the species usually grows in small and dense patches, and thus such a patch can be seen by an observer for many hundreds of yards across its dry sandhills habitats. In fall, the paired fruits are erect, very long and slender, growing about 5-6 inches long. This species had long been on the NCNHP Watch List, but enough recent records had been made to remove it from that list. It is certainly not seen on every walk in the sandhills, and it may take a handful of walks to find it, but a biologist working that region should see it from time to time in a given year. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | No changes to its scientific name, but there has been some question about the taxonomy of the more western populations.
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| Other Common Name(s) | Sandhill/Sandhills Bluestar | |
| State Rank | S3 | |
| Global Rank | G5? | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
