New Stuff

Yesterday a neighbor who is active in the San Diego chapter of CNPS emailed me to say that she had a bunch of seedlings to get rid of. She grew them to give out at the last chapter meeting, but there was no meeting thanks to Covid 19. So she was looking for good homes for these babies. I got over there as fast as I could, even though I have no room for any new plants.

She had a bunch of good plants. First up is Lupinus hirsutissimus (stinging lupine). It has really sharp, stinging hairs like nettle except that the stinging only happens when you are in contact with the plant, whereas nettle can continue to sting for hours after you touch it. Aside from the stinging hairs, it's an attractive lupine that is found in local chaparral.

Next is Phacelia cicutaria (caterpillar phacelia). All the Phacelias have attractive flowers in the blue to purple end of the spectrum. This one has pale lavender flowers in a typical scorpioid (coiled) inflorescence, and some of mine are already blooming. This Phacelia has hairs on the stem but they are soft and not stinging.

I put two Phacelias in an old bucket, along with a couple of baby blue eyes.

Number 3 on my list is Diplacus (formerly Mimulus) pictus (calico monkeyflower). This species is from the western Sierra foothills, so it isn't really native to here. However, it has an irresistible little flower with elaborate maroon markings.

I put 5 of these in a pot along with a couple of blue-eyed grass. Calscape says it grows in forest and woodland habitat, in open, bare, rocky, and often disturbed areas. I can't really provide that kind of habitat, so I just hope it is happy in this pot.

The last of the annuals is Plantago erecta (dotseed plantain). It's a grass-like plant that is unassuming to look at but ecologically very important.

Its value come from being the primary host plant for several butterfly species in the Euphydryas genus (checkerspots). Host plant means that the butterfly lays its eggs on the plant and the caterpillars eat it. The local Euphydryas subspecies is called the quino checkerspot (E. editha quino) and it is in serious trouble.

The Center for Biological Diversity says "Historically, this butterfly was distributed throughout the coastal slopes of southern California, from Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and San Bernardino counties southward to El Rosario in northern Baja California, Mexico. Its historic distribution included the westernmost slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains, the Los Angeles plain, and the Transverse Ranges to the edge of the upper Anza-Borrego desert...Formerly one of the most common butterflies in southern California, the Quino checkerspot now inhabits only eight areas in southwestern Riverside and southern San Diego counties and four in Baja. Of these, all but three populations contained fewer than five individual butterflies in 2000." 

Photo by Andrew Fisher

In the past Plantago erecta was equally widespread, but it's range has been reduced by agriculture and urban/suburban development. I don't pretend that my little container of Plantago is going to attract any quino checkerspots because they no longer exist in the Encinitas area, but I like the plant and what it represents. I hope it will spread itself all through my garden.


The above plants are annuals, so they may come back next year or they may not. Of course, I hope they do. One other more plant that I got is a perennial vine, Lathyrus splendens (campo pea). There are several genera and species of vining pea plants in San Diego county, and splendens has the most showy flowers. Found mostly in Baja, it comes into the southern part of San Diego county, so it is not truly native to Encinitas, but close enough. Here is what it looks like now.

It is likely to be a few years before my plants produce any flowers, so here's a photo I got from the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Photo by W.D. and Dolphia Bransford