Plants Gain Protected Status

ANAHEIM —  A mauve-flowered herb that is known to grow in only four spots on Earth, including an Anaheim canyon area, will be granted protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The Braunton’s milk-vetch has been championed by Orange County environmentalists hoping to protect Coal and Gypsum canyons from development.

The two canyons are believed to contain the world’s largest remaining population of the plant. Hundreds of homes are planned for private land in the Coal Canyon area, and officials could not predict with certainty if those plans would be altered by the plant’s new endangered status. They did note the listing has little effect on private land.

In all, six rare plants clinging to life on mountainsides ringing the Los Angeles Basin are being added to the federal endangered species list.

Braunton’s milk-vetch and the yellow-flowered Lyon’s pentachaeta are being listed as endangered, meaning they are in the most danger of extinction. The other four plants, all rock plants known as dudleyas are being categorized as threatened. They are: the Santa Monica Mountains dudleya, marcescent dudleya, Conejo dudleya and Verity’s dudleya.

Braunton’s milk-vetch, which springs up after wildfires, is known to be found in only three other areas: Monrovia, the upper Santa Ynez Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains and in the Simi Hills in Ventura County. Fewer than 300 plants currently are growing, a federal botanist said.

One of the newly listed dudleyas, the Santa Monica Mountains dudleya is not only in those hills but in Santiago and Modjeska canyons on the western flank of the Santa Ana Mountains. It consists of a rosette of thick leaves.

Environmentalists hailed the new listings as a signal that the government is moving ahead to protect rare wildlife after a 13-month freeze imposed by Congress. They said such listings are badly needed in Southern California, where development has overtaken much of the native habitat.

“This was a long time in coming, and it should have been done ages ago,” said Connie Spenger of Fullerton, who urged the protection of the Braunton’s milk-vetch in Coal and Gypsum canyons. “I think it’s an important step to protecting the plant.”

Experts said the federal Endangered Species Act offers much weaker protection for plants than it does for animals, and that even the force of federal law might not save many plants located on private land.

However, on public lands, it will offer new means of protecting the plants and their habitat, said Tim Thomas, botanist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which announced the listings.

And plant advocates say they hope that among private landowners, the listing will promote a new consciousness of the plants’ fragility.

“This will provide just a little extra nudge,” said Tony Bomkamp of Anaheim, president of the Orange County chapter of the California Native Plant Society.

The Braunton’s milk-vetch, a member of the pea family, sprouts gray-green leaves and can grow 5 feet tall. It is known for its unusual affinity for limestone terrain and for fire-scorched land.

It is commonly called a “fire follower,” since it typically flourishes for two or three years following a wildfire and then fades away, leaving seeds behind to be triggered by the next fire, which may not occur for another 20 to 100 years.

A 1982 fire stimulated growth of the plant in the Anaheim canyon area, near Anaheim, Spenger said. She last saw the plants in 1988 on the ridge line between Coal and Gypsum canyons.

Some of that land is earmarked for a 1,550-unit housing project called Cypress Canyon, planned by the Hon Development Co.

Anaheim Senior Planner Linda Johnson said Wednesday that officials will need to review environmental documents to see if that development would be affected by the milk-vetch’s new listing.

Both federal and state experts said that even the protection of the Endangered Species Act has little effect for plants on private land, unless a proposed development receives federal funding or has some other federal link.

But they said such listings do heighten public awareness of how many of Southern California’s native plants are threatened by development, over-collecting and the invasion of nonnative weeds.

“It does bring focus to the fact that they’re imperiled,” said Sandra Morey, coordinator of the plant conservation program at the California Department of Fish and Game in Sacramento.

“Sometimes it helps to increase recovery efforts, or funding for recovery efforts, because people recognize the federal government has designated them as endangered or threatened. It adds some weight.”

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Getting a Listing

Six Southland plants have been newly listed as either endangered or threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. The major threats to the plants include habitat degradation, overcollection and competition from invasive weeds. A quick look at the six:

Endangered Braunton’s milkvetch

* A short-lived perennial member of the pea family; may grow up to 5 feet.

* Long leaves and light purple flowers with slightly curved pods.

* Found in parts of Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties.

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Lyon’s pentachaeta

* An annual member of the Aster family.

* Grows 2 1/2 to 19 inches tall and bears yellow flowers that bloom April through June.

* Found in Santa Monica Mountains and western Simi Hills.

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Threatened

Four members of the dudleya family, sometimes called live-forevers. They are perennial rock plants with thick, moisture-conserving leaves.

Conejo live-forever has pale yellow flowers, often flecked with red. Known only from the western end of the Simi Hills to Conejo Grade, Ventura County.

Marcescent dudleya, bright yellow to yellow with red markings, is found on volcanic rock surfaces and canyon walls adjacent to streams. Found in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Santa Monica Mountains dudleya remain evergreen during summer; pale yellow and leaves with a maroon underside. Found in Santa Monica Mountains, along Topanga and Malibu creeks and Orange County’s Santa Ana Mountains.

Verity’s live-forever is found in very limited areas of Ventura County’s lower Conejo Grade. Lemon-yellow corollas with petal tips curved up to 90 degrees.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service