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Milkwort Jewelflower

Streptanthus polygaloides

Streptanthus polygaloides is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name milkwort jewelflower. It is endemic to the Sierra Nevada foothills of California, where it grows in woodlands and chaparral, generally on serpentine soils. Streptanthus polygaloides is quite variable in morphology. In general, it is an annual herb producing a hairless, sometimes waxy-textured stem under 10 centimeters to nearly one meter tall. The ephemeral basal leaves have blades divided into narrow segments and borne on petioles. Leaves higher on the stem have simple, linear blades up to 10 centimeters long which lack petioles. Flowers occur at intervals along the upper stem. Each has a folded, hooded, calyx of deeply keeled sepals in shades of greenish yellow to purple. Brown-veined white petals emerge from the tip. The fruit is a smooth, straight, flat or four-angled silique up to 5 centimeters in length. Hyperaccumulator of nickel. The Streptanthus polygaloides plant is a hyperaccumulator of nickel, with hyperaccumulation defined as the presence of at least 1,000 μg nickel per gram of dry mass. This species averages 2,430 to 18,600 μg/g. This trait helps protect the plant against many types of pathogens, including the powdery mildew Erysiphe polygoni, the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris, and the fungus Alternaria brassicola. It also helps defend the plant from leaf-chewing insects such as the red-legged grasshopper (Melanoplus femurrubrum) and the moth Evergestis rimosalis, and root-feeding insects like the cabbage maggot (Delia radicum). The high nickel levels in the plant have also been shown to protect it against the diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella). On the other hand, they do not affect all herbivorous insects that attack the plant, perhaps because some insects eat parts of the plant low in nickel, or can tolerate high-nickel diets, or include other, less toxic plant matter in their diets. In fact, some insects thrive on a high-nickel diet, such as the mirid bug Melanotrichus boydi, which specializes on this plant. Phytoremediation. The plant's ability to draw relatively large amounts of nickel from the soil make it of interest as an agent of phytoremediation in soils polluted with heavy metals.

Oil Neststraw

Stylocline citroleum

Stylocline citroleum is a rare species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name oil neststraw. It is endemic to Kern County, California, where it is known from about 46 occurrences on and around the Elk Hills Oil Field. The occurrences are patchy and variable in size, and some sources consider them to be part of a single widely spread metapopulation. The species has been collected from coastal San Diego County, but any occurrences there are probably now extirpated. The plant has been known for over one hundred years, and the type specimen was collected in 1935, but it was not described to science as a distinct species until 1992. Stylocline citroleum grows in the valley saltbush scrub ecosystem in the sandy flats and clay soils of the San Joaquin Valley in areas developed into oil fields, the inspiration for the common and scientific names of the species. The plant probably evolved as a hybrid of mountain neststraw (Stylocline gnaphaloides) and California filago (Filago californica), and it is almost always found growing alongside one or both of its parent species. This inconspicuous annual herb produces a grayish, trailing, forking stem no more than 13 centimeters long. The grayish, woolly, pointed leaves are up to 1. 4 centimeters long. The inflorescence bears spherical flower heads just a few millimeters long with tiny, rough-haired phyllaries and scaly, woolly florets. It is hard to tell apart from other Stylocline because its defining characteristics are microscopic.

California Seablite

Suaeda californica

Suaeda californica is a rare species of flowering plant in the amaranth family known by the common name California seablite. It is endemic to San Luis Obispo County, California, where it is known from a few occurrences in the marshes around Morro Bay. Suaeda californica is a mound-shaped shrub up to 80 centimeters tall with hairless or slightly hairy succulent green or red-tinged herbage. The woody stems have many branches which are covered with the knoblike bases of old leaves. Between these grow the new leaves, which are lance-shaped and up to 3. 5 centimeters long. The flowers occur between the leaves, all along the stems. Each cluster has 1 to 5 flowers and is accompanied by a leaflike bract. The calyx is a cone of fleshy, rounded sepals, and there are no petals. The fruit is an utricle that grows within the calyx. Habitat. This rare plant, Suaeda californica, grows in a restricted area within the intertidal zone of salt marshes. It is threatened by anything that alters the hydrology of the area, such as changes in sedimentation, including dredging, erosion, and recreation. It requires a porous substrate high in nitrogen, which may come from decaying plant matter and bird droppings. Invasive plant species such as introduced ice plant threaten remaining occurrences and reintroductions. Endangered status. It once occurred around the San Francisco Bay, but any populations there are now extirpated. It probably once grew along the Petaluma River north of the bay, as remains of the species have been found in adobe bricks there. By 1991 the total remaining number of individuals was estimated to be below 500, and the plant was federally listed as an endangered species of the United States in 1994. Some carefully tended populations have been planted as reintroductions at locations around the San Francisco Bay.

Water Awlwort

Subularia aquatica

Subularia aquatica is an aquatic plant in the mustard family which is known by the common name water awlwort. This is a small herb with awl-like leaves (generally cylindrical but tapering to a sharp point), and growing from a corm above a network of bright white roots. Tiny flowers, each only about a millimeter long, are borne on stalks. Flowers which rise above the surface of the water open, while those that remain submersed stay closed and self-pollinate. The seeds come inside tiny inflated pods. There are two varieties of water awlwort; S. a. var. aquatica is native to Eurasia and S. a. var. americana is native to northern North America. There may also be a Mexican subspecies. This plant grows in ponds, marshes, peat bogs, and other shallow, cold water bodies, often in gravel or sand. NativeNativePalearctic: Siberia: West SiberiaSoviet Far East: Kamchatka OblastNorthern Europe: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Kaliningrad, Norway, Sweden, United KingdomMiddle Europe: Belgium, GermanyEast Europe: Belarus, Central Russia, Central Black Earth, Northern Russia, North Caucasus, Northwestern Russia, Volga, Urals, Volga-VyatkaSoutheastern Europe: BulgariaSouthwestern Europe: France, SpainNearctic: Subarctic America: Northwest Territory, Yukon Territory, Greenland, AlaskaEastern Canada: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, QuebecWestern Canada: British Columbia, Manitoba, SaskatchewanNortheastern United States: Maine, New Hampshire, New York, VermontNorth-Central United States: MinnesotaNorthwestern United States: Idaho, Montana, Washington, WyomingSouthwestern United States: California, Utah

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