17. LASTARRIAE Rémy in J. Gay, Fl. Chil. 5: 289. 1851-1852 • Spineflower
[For José Victorino Lastarria Santander, 1817-1888, lawyer and founder of the Liberal Party in Chile]
Plants prostrate to ascending, thinly pubescent annual herbs arising from a thin taproot. Leaves essentially basal; leaf-blades linear, hirsute, on an indistinct petiole. Flowering stems ascending, often brittle. Inflorescences cymose, diffuse, often with the secondary branches suppressed, dichotomously branched throughout, brittle and easily disarticulating into segments, each node bearing a sessile flower; bracts 2, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, erect to spreading, awn-tipped. Peduncles lacking. Involucres solitary, reduced to a series of 3 linear to broadly lanceolate involucral bracts, pubescent on the margins, awn-tipped. Flowers pedicellate, not stipitate, 1, light green to greenish-white, thinly pubescent abaxially; perianth lobes 5, coriaceous, lanceolate, acute with a recurved, hooked awn, united about ½-¾ their length. Stamens 3; filaments free, glabrous; anthers cream to white, oval. Achenes lenticular, brownish, glabrous; embryo straight, in abundant endosperm.
Species 3 (1 in the flora): w North America, s South America.
The awn-tipped, coriaceous perianth lobes easily distinguish Lastarriaea from other genera of the Eriogonoideae. Nonetheless, the mostly prostrate habit with brittle stems and branches is seen elsewhere in Chorizanthe, most notably C. brevicornu and the Baja California endemic, C. interposita, the only species of the sect. Clastoscapa. It is on the basis of the latter feature that early authors assigned the North and South American species to Chorizanthe. The three species assigned to the genus (L. ptilota Reveal of Baja California Sur, Mexico and L. chilensis Rémy of Chile) are morphologically not all that different one from another. As a result the names L. chilensis and C. lastarriaea Parry have been misapplied to the California species.SELECTED REFERENCES Goodman, G. J. 1934. A revision of the North American species of the genus Chorizanthe. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 21: 1-102. Reveal, J. L. Notes on selected genera related to Chorizanthe (Polygonaceae: Eriogonoideae). Phytologia 66: 199-220.
1. Lastarriaea coriacea (Goodman) Hoover, Leafl. W. Bot. 10: 342. 1966 • Leather spineflower
Chorizanthe coriacea Goodman, Leafl. W. Bot. 3: 230. 1943, based on Lastarriaea chilensis Rémy subsp. californica Gross, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 49: 435. 1913; C. lastarriaea Parry var. californica (Gross) Goodman
Plants 0.2-1.5 × 0.5-3(-5) dm. Leaf-blades linear, 0.5-3 × 0.02-0.08(-0.1) cm. Inflorescences yellowish-green to green or red, finely pubescent, brittle and readily disarticulating. Bracts narrowly lanceolate, 0.4-1.5(-2) × 0.08-0.15(-0.2) cm, erect or nearly so; awns uncinate, (0.5-)1-2(-2.5) mm. Involucral bracts 0.3-1(-1.2) × 0.03-0.1 cm, linear, erect; awns uncinate, 0.5-2 mm. Flowers 2-3.5 mm (including awns); perianth lobes narrowly lanceolate, united >¾ their length. Filaments 0.5-1 mm; anthers 0.2-0.3 mm. Achenes 2.5-3 mm. n = 21, 30.
Flowering winter-early summer (Feb-Jun). Sandy to gravelly soils in coastal and inland grassland, coastal scrub and chaparral communities, and in pine-oak woodlands; 0-765 m; w Calif.; Mexico (Baja California) - see map; map of northern range, map of central range and map of southern range.
Lastarriaea coriacea is infrequent to locally common along the coast of California from Sonoma Co. to San Diego, and in the foothills and mountains from Calaveras Co. to western Riverside Co.
County Listings:
CALIFORNIA: Calaveras, Contra Costa, Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Orange, Riverside,
San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tulare and Ventura
Lastarriaea coriacea (Goodman) Hoover - habit
Lastarriaea coriacea (Goodman) Hoover - habit
Lastarriaea coriacea (Goodman) Hoover - inflorescences
Lastarriaea coriacea (Goodman) Hoover - inflorescences
Lastarriaea coriacea (Goodman) Hoover - involucres
All images copyrighted and may be used only with permission - contact James L. Reveal. Webpage published by the University of Maryland
