''Chorizanthe cuspidata'' is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common name San Francisco spineflower. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where it is known only from the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

and to the immediate north and south. It grows in sandy coastal habitat.

Description

The ''Chorizanthe cuspidata'' plant grows flat along the ground, its stems extending up to about half a meter in length. The leaves are located about the base of the stem and are generally oval in shape and up to 5 centimeters long. The herbage is hairy to woolly in texture and green to reddish in color. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a dense cluster of cylindrical flowers, each bordered by white or pink

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s with hooked or straight spines at the tips. The flower itself is 2 or 3 millimeters long, white or pink, and hairy. The minute

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s are lobed, with the central lobe longest and coming to a point. ;Varieties There are two varieties of this species: *''Chorizanthe cuspidata'' var. ''cuspidata'' is quite rare due to its Bay Area habitat having been mostly consumed for development. *''Chorizanthe cuspidata'' var. ''villosa'' can be found in the protected habitat of

Point Reyes National Seashore Point Reyes National Seashore is a park preserve located on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US National Park Service as an important nature preserve. Some existing agricult ...

.Flora of North America
/ref>

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment: ''Chorizanthe cuspidata''''Chorizanthe cuspidata'' - U.C. Photo gallery
cuspidata Endemic flora of California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area Taxa named by Sereno Watson Plants described in 1882 {{Polygonaceae-stub