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October 15, 2007 : Stephanomeria diegensis
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Keywords: Asteraceae | Stephanomeria diegensis Gottleib | San Diego, California, USA
Updated October 17 at 1:35pm Pacific time: Tom Chester has identified this plant as Stephanomeria diegensis. The entry written below was written for when the plant was identified as Stephanomeria virgata – see comments below.
Thank you to dionysia@Flickr for today's photograph. dionysia is a first-time contributor to BPotD (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). Many thanks!
Rod wire-lettuce or twiggy-wreath plant is native to Oregon, Nevada and California (and considering its presence in San Diego, presumably parts of Mexico). It is an annual of disturbed places, so like yesterday's Tithonia, is often considered a weed.
The Jepson Manual recognizes two subspecies of Stephanomeria virgata, the few-flowered Stephanomeria virgata subsp. pleurocarpa and Stephanomeria virgata subsp. virgata. However, sometimes someone takes a closer look at oft-overlooked plants, and shares observations that seem to disagree with what's been published, such as Tom Chester's examination of Stephanomeria virgata and Stephanomeria diegensis (Jepson's account of Stephanomeria diegensis). The Flora of North America treatment of Stephanomeria also needs to be thrown into the mix (though it largely relies on older treatments, so again differs from Chester's observations). However, it does go some way to explaining the problems: four hair-pulling words to any taxonomist, “Hybrids are found frequently”.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at October 15, 2007 7:28 AM
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Comments
Posted by: Carol Ross at October 15, 2007 9:15 AM
I'm a Plant Ecologist in California, and never before did I realize this plant was NATIVE! I just assumed it was an exotic. Learn something new everyday!
Posted by: Meghan at October 15, 2007 10:00 AM
The plants and the shadows are very interesting.
I really like learnig more of the plants each day. This is a fine photograph.
Thank you,
Margaret-Rae
Posted by: Margaret-Rae Davis at October 15, 2007 3:58 PM
Tom Chester sent along the following:
“Michael Charters kindly alerted me to the photo posted at your site.
You might let dionysia know that she has photographed S. diegensis, not S. virgata, as indicated by the number of petals and the stated location of her plant. See this map of county distribution.
To be 100% sure, one needs to look at the fruit, but as can be seen from the recent vouchers from San Diego County, no one has found any S. virgata anywhere close to her stated location.
By the way, actually, many (not all) “hybrids” are due to incomplete understanding of species. The number of “hybrids” has been declining with time as spurious species are no longer recognized.”
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin 
at October 17, 2007 1:40 PM
Thanks Tom, much appreciated.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at October 17, 2007 1:41 PM
Thank you, everyone, for your kindness! Thanks especially to Tom Chester -- I have duly updated my Flickr pages.
Posted by: Dionysia at October 17, 2007 8:02 PM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
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It looks for all the world like the flowers are sprouting out of wire fencing. By the way, I want to say that the navigability of your site is incredibly well designed, and the links are so handy, that, unless I watch the time, I could easily spend hours.
Carol