''Adolphia californica'', known by the common names California adolphia, California prickbush, and spineshrub, is a species of flowering

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

in the

buckthorn family The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

.Jepson: ''Adolphia californica''
/ref>

Distribution

The shrub is native to the coastal plains and

Peninsular Ranges The Peninsular Ranges (also called the Lower California province) are a group of mountain ranges that stretch from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Coast Ranges, which ...

foothills in northwestern

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

and

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

. It is found in

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

and

coastal sage scrub Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is w ...

plant communities, at elevations below .

Description

''Adolphia californica'' is a branching shrub not exceeding in height. It has thick hairless to fuzzy dark green twigs. The stiff twigs bear sharp thorns. The very sparse leaves are each less than a centimeter long and oval-shaped with a pointed or rounded tip. The shrub blooms abundantly in clusters of flowers along all the branches. Each flower is a star-shaped bowl of five pointed cream-colored

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s. Between the sepals are five tiny spoon-shaped cream-colored petals. The bloom period is December to April. The fruit is a spherical capsule about half a centimeter across.

Conservation

Within California ''Adolphia californica'' is a Critically endangered species, listed by the California Native Plant Society on the Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants.California Native Plant Society, Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants (online edition; v8-03 0.39): ''Adolphia californica''
. accessed 10 June 2017. It is threatened by urbanization, road construction, non-native plants, and grazing.

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Adolphia californica'' (California adolphia)Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Adolphia californica''USDA Plants Profile for ''Adolphia californica'' (California prickbush)UC CalPhotos gallery: ''Adolphia californica'' images
{{- Rhamnaceae Flora of California Flora of Baja California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of San Diego County, California Critically endangered flora of California Taxa named by Sereno Watson Flora without expected TNC conservation status