''Garrya elliptica'', the coast silk-tassel, silk tassel bush or wavyleaf silktassel, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Garryaceae,

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to the coastal ranges of California and southern Oregon. It is an erect, bushy,

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, whic ...

shrub reaching a height of .

Description

Growth habit

It has a multi-furcate branching structure yielding an almost spherical form. The height averages in the wild. Like others of its genus, ''G. elliptica'' has

opposite leaves In botany, phyllotaxis () or phyllotaxy is the arrangement of leaves on a plant stem. Phyllotactic spirals form a distinctive class of patterns in nature. Leaf arrangement The basic arrangements of leaves on a stem are opposite and alterna ...

with a tough leathery feel, glossy green on top, but paler and duller on the underside.

Flowers

The dioecious flowers are concentrated in

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

s which cascade downward as aments of in length. While it manifests separate male and female plants, the pendant male catkins are much more showy and are grey-green and up to long; the female ones are shorter and silver-grey. Although the flowers bloom in late winter and early spring, dried bracts remain on the plant well into summer as light gray decorations. The plant has smooth bark, dark-greenish when young, but roughening with age. New twigs are green and moderately stout. For pistillate flowers, above each small bract there is a solitary flower inside the inflorescence. This plant produces tiny dark seeds. The ripened purplish black fruit of about 1 cm in diameter has a hard desiccated coating, but is rather fleshy on the interior. There are a total of four stamens per flower; moreover, above each bract pair there is a triplet of flowers. The cultivar 'James Roof' has catkins up to in length.

Leaves

The unique characteristics of ''Garrya elliptica'' are its waxy

convex Convex or convexity may refer to: Science and technology * Convex lens, in optics Mathematics * Convex set, containing the whole line segment that joins points ** Convex polygon, a polygon which encloses a convex set of points ** Convex polytop ...

leaves with wavy leaf margins, coupled with dense individual hairs on the leaf undersides that are scarcely distinguishable with a hand lens. Its leaf blades are in length, and the petioles range in length from 6–12 mm. For identification purposes Congdon silk-tassel (''

Garrya congdonii ''Garrya congdonii'', the chaparral silktassel or Congdon silktassel, a fairly common evergreen shrub native to the northern California Coast Ranges, is one of a small biological family of approximately twenty known species in the family ''G ...

'') is most closely related. Congdon silk-tassel has the same leaf appearance, but leaf hairs are distinguishable with a hand lens, and both leaf blades and petioles are about two thirds the size of Coast silk-tassel. Both Fremont silk-tassel (''

Garrya fremontii ''Garrya fremontii'' is a species of flowering shrub known by several common names, including California fever bush, bearbrush, and Frémont's silktassel. Both the latter name, and the plant's specific name (botany), specific epithet are derive ...

'') and ashy silk-tassel ('' Garrya flavescens'') have similar fruit characteristics, but have a flat leaf margin.

Distribution and habitat

''Garrya elliptica'' is found in several plant communities, principally in drier coastal California and southern Oregon no more than 20 miles from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

; the main associations are coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion, Northern coastal scrub, Mixed evergreen coastal forest and Northern

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 ...

. This plant can tolerate moderately heavy

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

soils and serpentine areas, but likes soils pH to lie in the range of six to eight. It is not grazed to a great degree by deer or rabbits, and is hardy to cold temperatures of about . It is moderately drought tolerant, but is more luxuriant with rainfall of about per annum. The species is usually found at elevations above , within the mountains of the Pacific Coast range, such as Montara Mountain, San Bruno Mountain and

Napa County Napa County () is a county north of San Pablo Bay located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 138,019. The county seat is the City of Napa. Napa County was one of the original c ...

Cultivation

''Garrya elliptica'' is appealing as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

with a neat growing habit, and is widely used for landscape purposes. It is a low-maintenance plant that thrives in a range of locations, but is typically seen growing against a wall, or as a windbreak in coastal areas. The

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

'James Roof' has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

’s Award of Garden Merit.

Etymology

''Garrya'' is named for Nicholas Garry, who was secretary of the Hudson's Bay Company irca 1820-35 ''Elliptica'' is derived from Greek and means 'about twice as long as broad', 'oblong with rounded ends', or 'elliptic'; this is in reference to the shape of the leaves.Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. (hardback), (paperback). pp 152, 175 Garrya elliptica James Roof 2.jpg, VanDusen Botanical Garden, Vancouver Garrya elliptica James Roof 3.jpg, VanDusen Botanical Garden Garrya elliptica in Jardin des plantes in february 01.JPG, French National Museum of Natural History, Paris Garrya elliptica male catkins.jpg, Male catkins Garrya-sp.jpg, Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Garrya elliptica'' (Coast silktassel)Jepson Manual: Virginia Tech Forestry Department''Garrya elliptica'' — U.C. Photo gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5524257 Garryales Flora of California Flora of Oregon Flora of the Klamath Mountains Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant plants Flora without expected TNC conservation status