''Pedicularis dudleyi'' is a rare species of flowering plant in 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 ...

known by the common name Dudley's lousewort. 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 ...

to central

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 from about ten scattered occurrences along the coast and in the coastal mountain ranges. It has been found in three locations along the Central California coast. The species was named for 19th-century Stanford University botanist William Dudley.

Description

The species is a hairy

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

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 ...

and produces one or more stems tall from a

caudex A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is m ...

. The leaves are up to long and divided into many toothed lobes or lobed leaflets. 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

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

of flowers occupying the top of the stem. Each flower is up to long and club-shaped, with a hood-like upper lip and a three-lobed lower lip. The flower is light pink or purplish with darker markings. At the base of the flowers are long-haired

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 and woolly

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 fruit is a capsule roughly long containing seeds with netted surfaces.

Locations

The plant thrives only among old-growth trees, depending on redwood leaf litter and on a complex array of fungi that grows on the roots of the trees. Fewer than 10 known locations are known to support the plant in three areas along the Central California coast, including specific sections of Pescadero Creek in the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from ...

, the Arroyo De La Cruz In the South

Santa Lucia Mountains The Santa Lucia Mountains (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Range is a rugged mountain range in coastal central California, running from Carmel southeast for to the Cuyama River in San Luis Obispo County. The range is never more than from t ...

, and one site within the boundary of Boy Scout

Camp Pico Blanco Camp Pico Blanco is an inactive camp of (originally ) in the interior region of Big Sur in Central California. It is operated by the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council, of the Boy Scouts of America, a new council formed as a result of a merger ...

. That location at the site of the former Catholic Chapel contains about 50% of the known specimens. Monterey County cited the Scouts in 1989 for their "repeated destruction of Dudley's lousewort and its habitat." When the council cut 38 damaged trees after a fire in 2003, wood cuttings were piled on top of the lousewort.

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Pedicularis dudleyi'' (Dudley's lousewort)Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants Profile for ''Pedicularis dudleyi'' (Dudley's lousewort)UC CalPhotos gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7159255 dudleyi Endemic flora of California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges ~ ~ ~