Santa Barbara Spineflower

Chorizanthe wheeleri is a rare insular endemic known only from Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands.

Plants erect to spreading, 0.5-2(-2.5) × 1-2 dm, thinly pubescent. Leaves basal; petiole 0.5-3 cm; blade elliptic to oblong, 0.5-2 × 0.2-0.6 cm, thinly pubescent adaxially, tomentose abaxially. Inflorescences mostly flat-topped, openly branched, greenish to reddish; bracts persistent, 2, usually leaflike at proximal nodes and similar to leaf blades, short-petiolate, oblong, 0.5-1.2 cm × 2-4 mm, sessile, reduced and scalelike at distal nodes, linear, acicular, often acerose, 0.1-0.5 cm × 0.5-1 mm, awns straight, 0.5-1 mm. Involucres in dense terminal clusters with 1 at node of dichotomies, reddish, cylindric, not ventricose, 2-2.5 mm, corrugate, without scarious or membranous margins, thinly pubescent with stoutish, recurved hairs; teeth spreading, unequal, 0.3-0.8(-1) mm, with 3 longer ones more erect than 3 shorter and less-prominent ones; awns uncinate, 0.3-0.5 mm. Flowers exserted; perianth white or rose or red with white lobes, cylindric, 2.5-3 mm, glabrous except for few scattered hairs ca. midlength along midrib abaxially; tepals connate 1/ 2 their length, monomorphic to slightly dimorphic, oblong, rounded apically, those of outer whorl usually slightly broader and longer than those of inner whorl; stamens 6, included; filaments distinct, 1.5-2 mm, glabrous; anthers pink to red, oblong, 0.3-0.4 mm. Achenes brown, lenticular, 2.5-3 mm.

Calif.

Flowering Apr-Jun.

Gravelly to rocky slopes, coastal scrub communities; 0-400(-600)m.

Chorizanthe insularis R. Hoffmann

Chorizanthe wheeleri is a rare species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common names Santa Barbara spineflower and Wheeler's spineflower. It is endemic to Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands, two of the Channel Islands of California.

It resembles the closely related plant known as Turkish rugging (Chorizanthe staticoides) and any reported mainland occurrences are actually specimens of this much more common species.

Chorizanthe wheeleri is erect, growing up to about 25 centimeters tall, reddish in color and hairy in texture. The inflorescence is a dense cluster of flowers, each flower surrounded by six hairy bracts with hooked awns at the tips. The flower is white to red and only 2 or 3 millimeters wide.