A small, perennial plant that was presumed extinct was recently identified as living on Santa Catalina Island. Previously, Wiggins’ cryptantha was known from only one specimen collected in Mexico on the Baja Peninsula and described in 1931 by botanist Ira Wiggins.
Wiggins’ cryptantha, known to science as Cryptantha wigginsii in the Borage or Boraginaceae family had presumably not been collected in Mexico since that one instance, and had never before been confirmed as part of the flora of California.
A small, perennial plant that was presumed extinct was recently identified as living on Santa Catalina Island. Previously, Wiggins’ cryptantha was known from only one specimen collected in Mexico on the Baja Peninsula and described in 1931 by botanist Ira Wiggins.
Wiggins’ cryptantha, known to science as Cryptantha wigginsii in the Borage or Boraginaceae family had presumably not been collected in Mexico since that one instance, and had never before been confirmed as part of the flora of California.
Recently, Michael G. Simpson of San Diego State University and others looked at specimens of Cryptantha previously collected in Southern California and Mexico and determined that C. wigginsii had actually been collected several times since the 1930s. Three of these instances were from populations on Catalina Island.
The Catalina collections were by botanist Ray Fosberg in 1931 and by botanist Robert F. Thorne in 1966 and 1973.
These and other prior collections in Southern California and Mexico were incorrectly identified as C. clevelandii, a much more common species. In 2012, Simpson and associated researchers also located several new populations in Southern California, including Catalina Island.
The Catalina Island Conservancy supports and engages in the type of botanical study required to make important discoveries like this. Rare plant locations are tracked in the Conservancy’s Geographic Information System database and species like the endangered Catalina Mahogany (Cercocarpus traskiae) are regularly monitored.
Cryptantha is a large genus of approximately 120 species found in California, the southwest deserts and Central and South America. There are approximately 62 species of Cryptantha in California. Wiggins’ Cryptantha is closely related to the more common Cleveland’s Cryptantha (C. clevelandii). Cleveland’s Cryptantha and Wiggins’ Cryptantha look superficially similar in their size, flower color and other characteristics.
Mature fruiting material needs to be present to distinguish the Wiggins’ and Cleveland’s varieties through the technical characteristics of the very small seeds or nutlets, which are usually 1.5 to 2 millimeters long or the thickness of about a fingernail. C. wigginsii nutlets have small raised bumps (tubercles) on the pointed (apical) ends.
Wiggins’ cryptantha grow from seven to 10 inches high and produce snowy white petals up to 2 inches in diameter in the early spring. The plant has most often been found in arid, rocky, clay soil and in coastal sage scrub.
It takes a good eye to be able to see the difference, but if anyone thinking that they might have found Wiggins’ cryptantha may call Catalina Island Conservancy plant specialist Amy Catalano at (310) 510-1299, ext. 242. The research paper published by Simpson and four others, Cryptantha Wigginsii (Boraginaceae): A Presumed Extinct Species Rediscovered, published by the California Botanical Society, can be accessed online at www.CatalinaConservancy.org.
