Native plant identification key for the
Palos Verdes Peninsula, California


Leaves mostly linear, sometimes almost threadlike, but can be ovate (egg- shaped, with the wider part toward the base), generally < 2 mm wide. Margins usually entire (smooth) but can be strongly toothed. Tomentose (woolly), usually 0.5-5 cm long. Sessile (connected directly to the stem without a petiole stalk) or nearly so. Arranged oppositely, often with axillary fascicles below, but sometimes leaves may be alternately arranged higher up on the stems. Usually silver-grey but may be green. Flowers borne on axillary peduncles (flower stalks come out of the junction between a leaf and its stem), forming a flower spike. Corolla base is tubular in shape, ~2-4 cm long, the base very slightly bulging, with 4 petals, each petal often notched into 2 lobes each, ~8-17 mm long. The upper 2 petals are perpendicular to the tube, while the lower 2 are in line with it. The flower is bright red or scarlet. There are 8 stamens exserted past the petals and a pistil projecting well past them. Blooms July through November. Fruit is an unevenly 4 celled capsule, ~2-3.5 cm long, which opens to release many seeds. The seeds are oblong, 1.5-2.3 mm long, with a tuft of hair at the tip. The plant is a much-branched and leafy perennial subshrub (woody below, but stems are herbaceous higher up). Erect or decumbent (sprawling, sometimes resting on the ground) in growth habit, stems from 30-90 cm long. Favors dry slopes and ridges below 3000 m in coastal, montane, and valley areas of California and in a few mountainous locations in the Mojave. Other than the Mojave occurrences, though, it isn't found in the deserts of eastern California.

Epilobium canum aka Zauschneria californica aka Z. cana (Onagraceae): California fuschia, zauschneria, hummingbird trumpet


First placed on web: 08/06/11
Last revised: 08/06/11
Christine M. Rodrigue, Ph.D., Department of Geography, California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840-1101
rodrigue@csulb.edu

The development of this key was partially funded through the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program (Award #0703798) and through a course of re-assigned time provided by the CSULB Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. Thanks also to the students in sections of biogeography, introductory physical geography, GDEP, and LSAMP for "test-driving" various editions of this key.