Mt. Burdell Jewelflower
by Doreen Smith
Marin has a new endemic plant, Streptanthus anomalus, The article describing this new species, was published in MADRONO, Vol. 66, No. 1, pp. 24–29, 2019, with the title “A NEW JEWELFLOWER (STREPTANTHUS, BRASSICACEAE) FROM MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, USA” by Robert E. Preston, Aaron Arthur, Doreen Smith and Aaron Schusteff.
Independently, on each of the north and south ends of the Mt. Burdell escarpment, Aaron Arthur and I found a Streptanthus that wouldn’t key out in the 2012 Jepson Flora.
We put pictures of it online at Calphotos.org. Dr. Preston immediately recognized that it was likely a new species and collected a small amount of material to get it genetically investigated for a comparison with known Streptanthus and Caulanthus species. California Academy of Sciences has herbarium specimens.
The annual plants initially have a rosette of leaves that look very like those of Streptanthus glandulosus, but when it flowers it is completely different.
Superficially it looks like the perennial taxon, Streptanthus tortuosus. The nearest population of that species is on Mt. Hood in Sonoma County.
Photos by Vernon Smith
Streptanthus anomalus – (Mt Burdell jewelflower)
Streptanthus anomalus – (Mt Burdell jewelflower)
Streptanthus anomalus – (Mt Burdell jewelflower)
Streptanthus anomalus – (Mt Burdell jewelflower)