''Tetracoccus ilicifolius'' is a rare species of flowering shrub in the family
Picrodendraceae
Picrodendraceae is a family of flowering plants, consisting of 80 speciesStephens, P.F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/ in 25 genera. These are subtropical to Tropics, ...
known by the common names hollybush and holly-leaved tetracoccus.
It was described by botanists
Frederick Vernon Coville
Frederick Vernon Coville (March 23, 1867 – January 9, 1937) was an American botanist who participated in the Death Valley Expedition (1890-1891), was honorary curator of the United States National Herbarium (1893-1937), worked at then was Ch ...
and Marshall French Gilman in 1936. They had participated with other eminent biologists in the 1891
Death Valley Expedition funded by Congress.
Distribution
The plant is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...
to
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, found in only several
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...
mountain ranges within
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is a national park of the United States that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern sect ...
, in eastern
Inyo County
Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is ...
.
It grows on dry, rocky slopes at in elevation, in the
Panamint Range
The Panamint Range is a short rugged fault-block mountain range in the northern Mojave Desert, within Death Valley National Park in Inyo County, eastern California. A small part of the southern end of the range is in San Bernardino County. Dr. D ...
,
Grapevine Mountains
The Grapevine Mountains is a mountain range located along the border of Inyo County, California and Nye County, Nevada in the United States. The mountain range is about long and lies in a northwest-southeasterly direction along the Nevada-Calif ...
, and
Cottonwood Mountains surrounding
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer.
Death Valley's Badwat ...
.
There are fewer than ten occurrences, and it is a NatureServe listed
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 ...
.
California Native Plant Society Rare Plant Program: Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants of California (online edition, v8-03 0.39) − ''Tetracoccus ilicifolius'' report
. accessed 5.5.2017.
Description
''Tetracoccus ilicifolius'' is a branching 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 ...
, hairless in texture except for the new twigs, which have woolly brownish hairs. The shiny, leathery leaves are oppositely arranged or borne in whorls along the branches. Each leaf is oval with a toothed margin and measures 1.5 to 3 centimeters long.
The plant is dioecious
Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...
, with male and female individuals producing different types of flowers. The staminate
The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10
Morphology and terminology
A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...
flowers occur in dense clusters, each flower with 7 to 9 lance-shaped 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 and 7 to 9 stamens. The pistillate
Gynoecium (; ; : gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ...
flower occurs singly. The bloom period is May and June.
It produces a rounded, woolly brown fruit with usually four chambers. The fruit is around a centimeter long when mature and contains one or two seeds per chamber.
See also
*
*
*
References
External links
Calflora Database: ''Tetracoccus ilicifolius'' (Holly leaved tetracoccus, Hollybush)
Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment
UC CalPhotos gallery
Picrodendraceae
Endemic flora of California
Flora of the California desert regions
Natural history of the Mojave Desert
Natural history of Inyo County, California
Death Valley National Park
Panamint Range
Plants described in 1936
Critically endangered flora of California
{{Malpighiales-stub