''Adolphia californica'', known by the common names California adolphia, California prickbush, and spineshrub, is a species of flowering

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

in the buckthorn family.

Distribution and habitat

The shrub is native to the coastal plains and

Peninsular Ranges The Peninsular Ranges (also called the Lower California province) are a group of mountain ranges that stretch from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Pacific Coast Range ...

foothills in northwestern

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

and

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its border with Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634; it is the second-most populous ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. It is found in

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

and

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 ...

plant communities, at elevations below .

Description

''Adolphia californica'' is a branching shrub not exceeding in height. It has thick hairless to fuzzy dark green twigs. The stiff twigs bear sharp thorns. The very sparse leaves are each less than a centimeter long and oval-shaped with a pointed or rounded tip. The shrub blooms abundantly in clusters of flowers along all the branches. Each flower is a star-shaped bowl of five pointed cream-colored

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 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s. Between the sepals are five tiny spoon-shaped cream-colored petals. The bloom period is December to April. The fruit is a spherical capsule about half a centimeter across.

Conservation

Within California ''Adolphia californica'' is a

Critically endangered species An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of the ...

, listed by the

California Native Plant Society 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 c ...

on the Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants.California Native Plant Society, Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants (online edition; v8-03 0.39): ''Adolphia californica''
. accessed 10 June 2017. It is threatened by urbanization, road construction, non-native plants, and grazing.

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Adolphia californica'' (California adolphia)Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Adolphia californica''USDA Plants Profile for ''Adolphia californica'' (California prickbush)UC CalPhotos gallery: ''Adolphia californica'' images
{{- Rhamnaceae Flora of California Flora of Baja California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of San Diego County, California Critically endangered flora of California Taxa named by Sereno Watson Flora without expected TNC conservation status