''Dicranostegia'' is a monotypic genus of

hemiparasitic A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the ...

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 ...

s belonging to the family

Orobanchaceae Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, is a family of mostly parasitic plants of the order Lamiales, with about 90 genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera (e.g., ''Pedicularis'', ''Rhinanthus'', ''Striga'') were formerly included in the ...

, containing the species ''Dicranostegia orcuttiana'', commonly known as Orcutt's bird's beak or Baja bird's beak. It is near-

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 ...

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 ...

, found from Miller's Landing north to

Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

, but has a few occurrences in southern

San Diego County, California 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 ...

. It is differentiated among other similar species (like ''

Cordylanthus ''Cordylanthus'' (), commonly known as bird's beaks, is a genus of parasitic plants in the broomrape family, Orobanchaceae. These western North American natives are sparse, weedy-looking annuals with long branching erect stems and little foliage ...

'' spp.) in California by its leaves with 8 to 11 lateral lobes that are paired. It was formerly placed in the genus ''Cordylanthus'' until phylogenetic analysis led to it being split off. This species is threatened by the destruction of its habitat from urbanization.

Description

This annual

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

grows to in height and is green with dark-red markings, and often coated in stiff

hairs Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fine ...

. The roots are mostly yellowish in color, and form haustoria on their finer branches. The leaves are

pinnately Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

divided, arranged alternately, and are

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

. The pinnate leaves are lobed 8–11 times, and are long. 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 very dense cluster of flowers (an elongated spike) surrounded by leaf-like outer

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. The inflorescence is tall. The inner bracts are long and lobe 3–7 times, shaped lance-oblong. The corolla of each flower is up to long and is made up of a club-shaped, yellow-tipped white fibrous pouch, enclosed by a sheath-like calyx of around half the length of the corolla.

Distribution and habitat

This species is present in both the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. In Mexico, it is found in the state of

, from Miller's Landing in the central part of the state north to

Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

. In the United States, this species is found in

, where it occurs in the southern part of the county, in the

Otay River The Otay River () is a river in southern San Diego County, California. The river begins at San Miguel Mountain, flows through the Upper and Lower Otay Reservoirs, and continues on between the southern part of the Chula Vista and the Otay Mesa ...

valley, the Tijuana Hills, and the

Tijuana River , name_etymology = , image = Presa Tij 1.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Dam on the Tijuana River in Mexico. , map = Tijuana River Basin.svg , map_size = 250 , map_caption ...

valley. It was once present further north in San Diego County, notably in Rice Canyon and Greg Rogers Park in Chula Vista, but these occurrences have been extirpated to make way for residential development. In California, this species has a state rank of S1 ( Critically Imperiled), and a

CNPS The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is a California environmental non-profit organization (501(c)3) that seeks to increase understanding of California's native flora and to preserve it for future generations. The mission of CNPS is to con ...

Rare Plant Inventory rank of 2B.1 (Seriously threatened in California but common elsewhere). This species is most often found growing in a riparian habitat. In the Tijuana River valley, it can be found in a cobbly ecotone with

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 ...

above with '' Baccharis'' thickets and southern willow scrub ( ''Salix'' ''lasiolepis'' and associates'')'' near the water. The former occurrence in Chula Vista at Greg Rogers Park has a substrate of Reiff fine sandy loam. In the Otay River area, this species is found on Holocene alluviums and riverwash.

Gallery

File:Dicranostegia orcuttiana 95331766.jpg, The plant in August File:Dicranostegia orcuttiana 46789770.jpg, The plant with inflorescences File:Dicranostegia orcuttiana 46789766.jpg, The inflorescence File:Dicranostegia orcuttiana 35882951.jpg, In habitat File:Dicranostegia orcuttiana 42392366.jpg, The inflorescence in a hand

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment

USDA Plants Profile

San Diego Rare Plant Monitoring Report

Photo gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q33062597, from2=Q5170104, from3=Q32855990 Orobanchaceae Orobanchaceae genera Flora of Baja California Flora of California Parasitic plants Critically endangered flora of California Monotypic Lamiales genera