Returning to our flock, as we had hoped, is Elizabeth Schwartz (Newsletter Winter 1999), who has now become our unofficial curator of the native California plant collection, after a stint as director of the Theodore Payne Foundation. Elizabeth recently volunteered to inventory our uninspiring and aged collection of California species. Then she used her contacts to find new materials, and Elizabeth and Professor Zuckerman (Astronomy) made a substantial donation to purchase the items. Finally, Elizabeth and Joan Muench (Newsletter Spring 1999) joined forces to plant out the specimens. A springtime course on the ecology of California plants, taught by Professor Phil Rundel, will benefit from this noble effort.
Among the plants now in the landscape are both subspecies of the endemic Southern California genus Lyonothamnus of the rose family (Rosaceae). The more commonly seen in horticulture is the fern-leaved Catalina ironwood, L. floribundus subsp. asplenifolius, which has opposite, lobed leaves with crenate margins. That plant subspecies occurs in a few woodlands on the California offshore islands of Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Clemente, there endangered by grazing, and the fossil record demonstrates that this subspecies once survived on the mainland and was recorded in rocks even in Death Valley. Even more rare is the Santa Catalina Island ironwood, L. floribundus subsp. floribundus, which has simple leaves. This pair is now planted side by side on the hillside, so that future visitors will be afforded an opportunity to compare them directly.
A view of The Nest...