Additions To The Plant List For The Santa Rosa Plateau

Note that this is an older page, which will soon be superceded by pages giving the complete list of new species discovered at the Santa Rosa Plateau by myself and others, as well as a description of the changes in the flora since 1985.

In the course of following the bloom for one year at the Santa Rosa Plateau, I unexpectedly came across nine new species that were not on the plant list of Lathrop and Thorne (1985; 583 taxa), with additions by Bob Muns (2000; 7 taxa).

In addition, I have begun to compile plant lists per trail for each of the trails of the SRP. In the course of compiling the Vernal Pool list, I found a tenth new species.

This page records those new species. Locations with abundance information will be added later.

Since this page was written, I have discovered quite a few more new species, which are now incorporated into an updated plant list for the Santa Rosa Plateau. I plan to also give an updated description of the flora for the Reserve. Until then, I note the following two important features of the flora:

New Species Present At The Santa Rosa Plateau

Latin NameCommon NameFamily
Osmorhiza brachypoda TorreyCalifornia sweet-cicelyApiaceae
*Hedypnois cretica (L.) Dum.-Cours.Crete weedAsteraceae
Heterotheca sessiliflora (Nutt.) Shinn. ssp. echioides (Benth.) Semplebristly goldenasterAsteraceae
Artemisia dracunculus L.tarragonAsteraceae
Aster lanceolatus Willd. ssp. hesperius (A. Gray) Semple & J. ChmielewskiSiskiyou asterAsteraceae
Stephanomeria diegensis Gottlieb1wreathplantAsteraceae
Baccharis sarothroides A. Graybroom baccharisAsteraceae
*Erodium botrys (Cav.) Bertol.long-beaked filareeGeraniaceae
Scutellaria bolanderi A. Gray ssp. austromontana Eplingsouthern skullcapLamiaceae
Monardella hypoleuca A. Gray ssp. hypoleucawhite-leaf monardellaLamiaceae

* Non-native
1 This identification is probable, but not 100% certain. This species was discovered too late to go back to the plant in bloom and compare the plant against all of its features. But it is definitely a new species of Stephanomeria for the plant list, having only 6 ligules and grooved seeds that are 2.0-2.1 mm in length.

I thank the Reserve Biologist Zach Principe for help with identifying Scutellaria bolanderi, and Jane Strong for her considerable assistance with helping me to learn the plants of the Santa Rosa Plateau, and identify these new species.


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Copyright © 2002-2003 by Tom Chester.
Permission is freely granted to reproduce any or all of this page as long as credit is given to me at this source:
http://tchester.org/srp/plants/list/new_sp.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Updated 2 March 2003.