''Lithophragma maximum'', known by the common name San Clemente Island woodland star, is a rare species of flowering plant in the

saxifrage family Saxifragaceae is a family of herbaceous perennial flowering plants, within the core eudicot order Saxifragales. The taxonomy of the family has been greatly revised and the scope much reduced in the era of molecular phylogenetic analysis. The fa ...

. 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 ...

San Clemente Island San Clemente Island (Tongva: ''Kinkipar''; Spanish: ''Isla de San Clemente'') is the southernmost of the Channel Islands of California. It is owned and operated by the United States Navy, and is a part of Los Angeles County. It is administered b ...

, one of the eight

Channel Islands of California The Channel Islands () are an eight-island archipelago located within the Southern California Bight in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. The four Northern Channel Islands are part of the Transverse Ranges geologic province, and ...

. It is known from only about four kilometers of rocky coastal cliffs on the edge of the island.Furches, M.S., et al. (2009)
High genetic divergence characterizes populations of the endemic plant ''Lithophragma maximum'' (Saxifragaceae) on San Clemente Island
''Conservation Genetics'' 10:115-26. The plant was thought to be

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

until a few specimens were rediscovered in 1979.USFWS
Determination of Endangered Status for Three Plants from the Channel Islands of Southern California.
Federal Register. August 8, 1997. Only 200 individuals were tallied in a 1996 survey. In 1997 the plant was listed as an

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

on the federal level.

Description

''Lithophragma maximum'' is a

rhizomatous In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

perennial herb growing erect or leaning with a slender naked flowering stem. The leaves are located on the lower part of the stem, each divided into three sharply toothed leaflets. The stem bears up to 25 flowers, each in a cuplike calyx of red or green

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. The five petals are white or pink-tinged, approximately 4 millimeters long, and usually divided into about five pointed lobes.

Conservation

As of 2000 there were over 400 individuals remaining, but about one fourth of these are located in one canyon. All of the plants grow on land owned and tended by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

.Center for Plant Conservation
/ref> The two main threats to the species have been

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

of the local habitat and the presence of

feral goat The feral goat is the domestic goat (''Capra aegagrus hircus'') when it has become established in the wild. Feral goats occur in many parts of the world. Species Feral goats consist of many breeds of goats, all of which stem from the wild goat ...

s and

pigs The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

. The latter issue was resolved when the Navy removed the feral herbivores. A

genetic analysis Genetic analysis is the overall process of studying and researching in fields of science that involve genetics and molecular biology. There are a number of applications that are developed from this research, and these are also considered parts of ...

revealed a relatively high

genetic diversity Genetic diversity is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species, it ranges widely from the number of species to differences within species and can be attributed to the span of survival for a species. It is dis ...

across populations of this woodland star, probably due to the isolation of the populations from each other in the rugged, steep habitat. This suggests that it is important to protect each population in order to conserve the genetic variance in each.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Lithophragma maximum''The Nature Conservancy
*USFWS
''Lithophragma maximum'' Five-year Review.
September 2007. {{Taxonbar, from=Q6648101

maximum In mathematical analysis, the maxima and minima (the respective plurals of maximum and minimum) of a function, known collectively as extrema (the plural of extremum), are the largest and smallest value of the function, either within a given ran ...

Endemic flora of California