Helianthus nuttallii parishii (Los Angeles Sunflower)

[Melanie]

Los Angeles Sunflower – Helianthus nuttallii ssp. parishii

The Los Angeles Sunflower was rediscovered in September 2002 in the
Santa Clara River on Newhall Ranch, the same landowner that is
mentioned above, in Los Angeles County. It had not been seen since
1937. It is growing is at the base of a spring on the banks of the
Santa Clara River near Castaic Junction, but the landowner, Newhall
Land & Farming Company, refuses to allow the public to have access to
their property.

[Melanie]

Presumed Extinct Plant Discovered on Newhall Ranch

Botanists subcontracted to Dudeck & Associates, a consulting firm working for Newhall Land & Farming Co. on the Newhall Ranch development project found the Los Angeles Sunflower (Helianthus nuttallii ssp. parishii), a plant thought to be extinct, which had not been seen since 1937. The plant was apparently found in a boggy area of the Santa Clara River in Newhall Ranch someplace, but Newhall won’t tell exactly where yet. A Newhall spokesman said that Newhall has sent a letter to CDFG to request that the Los Angeles Sunflower be listed under the California Endangered Species Act. Newhall claims that this important discovery will in no way affect their plans for their new city. That remains to be seen

[Melanie]

The Los Angeles sunflower was thought to have gone extinct by 1937. In 2002, it was
rediscovered on a marshy bank of the upper Santa Clara River. This 10-12 foot tall plant
historically occurred in coastal saltwater and freshwater marshes throughout San
Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and Los Angeles Counties. With the loss of over 95% of
the wetland area of Southern California due to the draining of marshes and channelization
of streams, the Los Angeles sunflower was nearly lost. Currently, the species has no legal
status as threatened or endangered, but the California Department of Fish and Game is
reviewing its proposed addition to the state’s list of endangered species. Current range of
the species is unknown.

[Melanie]

Biologists Find an 'Extinct' Sunflower

By RICHARD FAUSSET and CAROL CHAMBERS
TIMES STAFF WRITERS

Biologists working for the developer of a proposed 21,700-home project near Santa Clarita have found a sunflower on the site not seen since 1937 and thought to have been extinct.

The same developer, Newhall Land & Farming Co., on Friday was charged with a misdemeanor on suspicion of altering a streambed in the area.

The 10-to 12-foot Los Angeles sunflower was found on a boggy bank along the Santa Clara River. It produces large yellow blossoms much like the standard sunflower, prefers marshy habitats and was once found in San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles counties.

It was forced into apparent extinction by urbanization and the channelization of many Southern California waterways, said Steve Boyd, curator of the herbarium at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont.

Newhall Land & Farming Co. this week wrote to the state Department of Fish and Game, requesting that the flower be added to the state list of endangered and threatened plants.

Plants and animals thought to be extinct have no protection under state laws, said Mary Meyer, a plant ecologist with Fish and Game.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office had been investigating whether the company has disturbed the habitat of the endangered San Fernando spineflower. The office would not say what the result of that investigation was.

But on Friday, it filed a misdemeanor complaint against the company alleging destruction of the streambed.

The complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court's Newhall branch alleges that the company changed "the banks, bed and channel of an unnamed tributary of the Santa Clara River" south of California 126 and west of Interstate 5.

Newhall Land spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer said she did not know details of the complaint and could not comment on it.

However, any activity on the land "absolutely wouldn't have been related to development. We are still farming portions of the land and have been doing that for more than 100 years," she said.

The streambed site is not far from the bank where fewer than a dozen Los Angeles sunflowers were found.

After the spineflower and the Ventura marsh milk vetch, the Los Angeles sunflower is the third plant formerly thought to be extinct that has turned up in the county, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for Fish and Game.

"There's all these places being developed now that were private property, tucked away," Martarano said. "We're just starting to find out what's on them."

The housing project, now undergoing environmental review, is to be considered by the county Board of Supervisors in January.
Analysis by
Robert 'Roy' J. van de Hoek
Field Ecologist & Geographer
Sierra Club, Wetlands Action Network, National Audubon Society

The Los Angeles Sunflower, once thought extinct, has had the good fortune, I hope, to be rediscovered. The newly discovered population is a very sacred California treasure and must not be allowed to go extinct. This unique native plant grew to nearly 17 feet tall and was found in marshes, swamps, and damp river banks around southern California until about World War II. The major alterations of flood control that began just prior to the War, but accelerated after the War, led to the demise of this beautiful native endemic plant throughout the Los Angeles region, or so we thought. This one remaining population holds the seeds and thus the faith to be restored and recovered to historic locations where it once occurred such as the cienegas, Los Angeles River, Riverside, and even within the Ballona Creek watershed and its adjacent coastal wetlands. This web site will compile, synthesize, and analyze all that is known about the Los Angeles Sunflower, a plant known to science today as Helianthus nuttallii parishii, but has also been known as Helianthus oliveri, Helianthus parishii, and Helianthus californicus parishii. Two of America's most famous writers of the 20th Century, Wallace Stegner and Joseph Wood Krutch have talked about geographies of hope of their favorite landscapes. Now there is a new biogeography of hope to include as a landscape of the west; it is the places where the Los Angeles Sunflower grows and may grow again in the Los Angeles region.

[Melanie]

Los Angeles Sunflower Anthology
Edited by
Robert 'Roy' J. van de Hoek
Field Biologist & Geographer
Sierra Club, Wetlands Action Network, National Audubon Society
and the
California Native Plant Society
P.O. Box 192
Malibu, CA 90265
[phone]

October 2002

The Los Angeles Sunflower, once thought extinct, has had the good fortune, I hope, to be rediscovered. The newly discovered population is a very sacred California treasure and must not be allowed to go extinct, or be tampered with by developers. This unique native plant grew to nearly 17 feet tall and was found in marshes, swamps, and damp river banks around southern California until about World War II. The major alterations of flood control that began just prior to the War, but accelerated after the War, led to the demise of this beautiful native endemic plant throughout the Los Angeles region, or so we thought. The wetland ecosystem near Valencia that is home to the only remaining population of Los Angeles Sunflower holds the key, in the wet soil, and the faith in the seed, to be recovered and restored to historic locations where it once occurred. These places include: Santa Monica at cienegas, Los Angeles River, Riverside, Newport Bay, Bolsa Chica wetlands, and Ballona wetlands. This web site will compile, synthesize, and analyze all that is known about the Los Angeles Sunflower, a plant known to scientists today by the name of Helianthus nuttallii parishii, but has also been known as Helianthus oliveri, Helianthus parishii, and Helianthus californicus parishii. Hope springs eternal is a phrase, I first learned about in 1989 at the Carrizo Plain. Once upon a time, Carrizo was almost used as a toxic land fill for Los Angeles, but has now become a National Monument. The Carrizo Plain is a geography of hope, and there, hope does springs eternal for several endangered native plants. We can only hope that the native plant, known as the Los Angeles Sunflower, can be so lucky as to find a geography of hope in southern California. Will hope spring eternal, in the damp wetland soils, that have the potential to grow the Los Angeles Sunflower, next spring, at the Bolsa Chica wetlands, Los Angeles River, Santa Clara River near Santa Clarita, La Cienega near Santa Monica, Riverside, Newport Bay, and the Ballona wetlands near Culver City?

[Melanie]

LOS ANGELES SUNFLOWER
Helianthus oliveri to Helianthus californicus parishii to Helianthus nuttallii parishii
Wetland-loving Sunflower
Dis-appears From Los Angeles
Going Extinct by 1903
Last Collected in 1937
Presumed Extinct in 1993
Re-appears in 2001
Soon To Be Restored And Recovered?
East of Lincoln Boulevard and East of Pacific Coast Highway

Excerpts From
Anstruther Davidson, M.D.
Southern California Academy of Sciences
501 Laughlin Block
Los Angeles, California

and

Compiled by
Robert 'Roy' J. van de Hoek, Field Biologist & Geographer
Southern California Academy of Sciences
Sierra Club, Wetlands Action Network, National Audubon Society
Los Angeles, California

**Helianthus parishii. One clump exists at Oak Knoll, Pasadena (McClatchie). Mr. Parish, I believe, was the first to suggest that this plant is identical with H. oliveri. Last summer I planted roots of both species in my garden. They grew as luxuriantly as they might have done in their native haunts. The stems, from 8 to 15 feet high, blossomed freely, and were quite showy. I could detect no difference between the species.**

**The Cienega between Los Angeles and Santa Monica is the type locality for Oliveri. There it still grows in diminished numbers, and the very tomentose forms seem distinctive enough, but all degrees of pubescence may be found in the space of a few yards. The most characteristic feature of these plants are the large, tuberous roots that resemble somewhat those of a dahlia. These are alike in both. In their natural habitat, the moist peaty swamps of the cienega, the tubers are quite close to the surface and are usually wholly submerged during the wet season. The swamps around here are fast being drained in the interest of "civilization." In the process of clearing by burning the tules, the tubers of the Helianthus readily perish in the conflagration. In a few years it will be totally extinct here. In the old Kurtz St. Marsh, in the city, a large number grew, but the filling up of the marsh necessary to the extension of the railway yards has completely exterminated them there.**

**Footnote Source = Southern California Academy of Sciences Bulletin, 1903,Volume 2, page 29-30.**



Closing Comment
by
Robert 'Roy' J. van de Hoek
Field Biologist and Geographer

Doctor Anstruther Davidson was one of the founders of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, just two years earlier. Dr. Davidson was also instrumental in founding the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. In 1903, when the article on the Los Angeles Sunflower, the United States and California were in the midst of the "Progressive Era" as Teddy Roosevelt, as U.S. President and a nature lover. In the next few years, John Muir would visit Dr. Davidson, and as would Andrew Carnegie. There is a photo of the three "Scots" from Scotland, and Teddy Roosevelt a "Dutchman" by heritage, in Pasadena. It was a bold part of American History, to attempt to educate the citizenry of Los Angeles, the State, and the Nation about the natural and wild beauty that is in Los Angeles and our United States. The first National Wildlife Refuges, and numerous new National Parks and National Forest all came to rise around 1903. The Sierra Club had only formed about 10 years earlier, and the Audubon Society was only a few years old as well. A new "Progressive Era" is emerging today in the new Millenium, with new youth and vitality and a new generation. It is the new "GREEN PARTY" and the symbol is not the Donkey or Elephant as in the Democrats and Republicans, but the SUNFLOWER. Let us bring back the Los Angeles Sunflower to our wetland cienegas and marshes. How very interesting that Dr. Davidson put quotation marks around the word, "civilization," as I also have done in just this very sentence. Isn't it interesting that Dr. Davidson wrote the following sentences nearly 100 years ago: "The swamps around here are fast being drained in the interest of "civilization." In the process of clearing by burning the tules, the tubers of the Helianthus readily perish in the conflagration. In a few years it will be totally extinct here. In the old Kurtz St. Marsh, in the city, a large number grew, but the filling up of the marsh necessary to the extension of the railway yards has completely exterminated them there.?"

It is always good to see what interested the Southern California Academy of Sciences about 100 years ago. In 1903, there was no automobile and no airplane in Los Angeles. Most of the roads were dirt roads and dirt air-fields. The Cienega on Wilshire Boulevard between Santa Monica and Los Angeles was still intact, but is now shrunken down to being called the La Brea Tarpits. Could we restore and recover the close relative of the Los Angeles Sunflower at this location? How will we restore and recover the Kurtz Street Marsh, just east of USC and west of the Los Angeles River at the railroad yards. Perhaps the acquisition of Taylor Yard for the Los Angeles River State Park is the spot to bring back the Los Angeles Sunflower.

I'm beginning to think that not only the Los Angeles Sunflower but the Narrow-leaved Cat-tail (described in an adjoining web page article) could be restored and recovered together nearby to each other.

In 1935, Dr. Phillip Munz of the Rancho Santa Botanic Garden, wrote his Manual of Southern California Botany, in which he stated the following about the Los Angeles Sunflower: "Swampy places near the coast, Orange & Los Angeles Counties." Could seeds of the Los Angeles Sunfloer still be viable? The plant specimen of 1937 with seeds, presumably is in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, just waiting for a restorationist and and endangered species (recovery) biologist and Botanic Garden specialist to attempt the project of germinating some seeds of the Los Angeles Sunflower.

As a field biologist and geographer, I am curious to know why the Los Angeles Sunflower or its close relative is not being discussed in "restoration conversations" of various urban wetlands projects taking place around southern California. For example, what about the the supposed freshwater portion of Playa Vista's Ballona Wetlands, which is actually a retention water basin? Is there an inadequacy in the the Playa Vista Project's restoration scientists? Are they paid not to find and discuss possibilities of bringing back plants to the Ballona Wetlands "supposed restoration." Not just the Los Angeles Sunflower, but similarly, Narrow-leaved Cat-tail is not discussed for Ballona, nor for restoration at Sepulveda Wildlife Area on the Los Angeles River nor anywhere else on the Los Angeles River. Could it be that the Army Engineer's own scientist and bioilogist are inadequate? A unique and wonderful opportunity is being missed at restoration and recovery if these unique plants are left out of the equation of restoration of the Los Angeles River and Ballona Wetlands. It may very well be that the Sunflower and Cat-tail are habitat for the California Black Rail, one of the most endangered birds of California. Perhaps this Sunflower and Cat-tail is better for the Red-winged Blackbird as well? Where is the research that links zoology and botany, or birds to plants, is it ecology and geography?

Today, in 2001, 98 years after 1903, "Los Angeles Sunflower" is extinct in Los Angeles, but there is an excellent opportunity for restoration and recovery of the close relative of this plant, Helianthus parishii, if someone would adopt a program to make it so.

Today, in 2001, 98 years after 1903, The California Native Plant Society believes that the last time the Los Angeles Sunflower was found was in 1937 Similarly, the Jepson Manual of 1993, also reported that the Los Angeles Sunflower was last seen in 1937, and is thus considered as "presumed extinct." What have we done to Los Angeles and her beautiful nature? I have learned that a very close relative of the Los Angeles Sunflower, that grows in marshy-swampy places in the San Gabriel Mountains could be brought back to the Los Angeles River, Cienegas, Ballona Creek, Ballona, Bolsa Chica, and other freshwater wetlands from Los Angeles to San Diego.

Today, in 2001, 98 years after 1903, La Brea Tarpits is an opportunity to be called a Cienega, rather than a Tarpit. It could be restored and recovered to a natural freshwater marsh. If only we can wrestle Hancock Park and the Museum away from LA County and LA City and turn it over to California State Parks. It is impossible for me to fathom the County and City government turning to nature history for this Park on Wilshire Boulevard. Time will tell! Humans have only been here with their cover of cement and asphalt for less 85 years. For thousands of years, if not millions of years before 1903, the Los Angeles Sunflower and "Narrow-leaved Cat-tail" lived in Los Angeles. This recreation of an article written 98 years ago, reproduced as a web page, is now a permanent statement for all the world to see and which can now not be erased from a growing number of individuals who visit the web page, and then make a pilgrimage to the Kurtz Street Marsh and La Cienega Marsh. Once upon a time, only about 65 years ago, there were rare plants growing in wetland marshes around Los Angeles.

Today, in 2001, the Sierra Club leads the fight for wetlands and open space by lending support to grassroots environmental groups such as the Wetlands Action Network, Friends of the Los Angeles River, and Ballona Watershed Council & Conservancy.

In 2001, the Sierra Club filed an amicus brief at the United States Supreme Court, very friendly to the Wetlands Action Network and California Public Interest Group, but not friendly to the United States Corps of Engineers. In Los Angeles, the Army Corps of Engineers is the enemy, and nature lovers and liveable city advocates at the Sierra Club, Wetlands Action Network, and CalPIRG, have joined forces to take on Engineers at the US Army. Abolishing the "Army Engineers" as an agency will not work, but lessening its power in civilian matters in Los Angeles is a proper goal. As we replace the "Army Engineers," we need two newer federal agencies to take over. The best choices would be the USEPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and USFWS (Fish & Wildlife Service) to take the lead in open space, liveable cities, and nature protection in Los Angeles.

Today, in 2001, 98 years after 1903, it is important to link the historical Ballona and Los Angeles wetland ecosystems, not just in acquiring the open space and stopping development, but in the spirit of the early resident's landscape names such as Arroyo Sacatella to the Arroyo Ballona and Arroyo Los Angeles. Perhaps it is time to begin to use more historical spanish names for our rivers and wetlands. Wouldn't Arroyo Los Angeles and Rio Los Angeles, but also Arroyo Ballona and Rio Ballona, be better than the Los Angeles River and Ballona Creek. It is too harsh sounding to have a spanish word juxtaposed with an english word. It is also not healthy in our mind to mix the words. Even better, would be to use the Native American word for placenames, and their are still some that exist in the LA landscape, such as Malibu, Topanga, Cahuenga, Cucamonga, Tujunga, and Pacoima.

[Melanie]

Los Angeles Sunflower:
Biogeography & Ecology
of an
Extinct Native Plant?

Robert Roy van de Hoek
Field Ecologist & Geographer
Sierra Club and Wetlands Action Network
P.O. Box 192
Malibu, CA 90265
[phone]
September 17, 2002

Harvey Monroe Hall (1907,p131-132) wrote a fascinating and now quite significant descriptive narrative about the Los Angeles Sunflower in his classic monograph, Compositae of Southern California. To scientists such as Harvey Monroe Hall, the Los Angeles Sunflower was known as Helianthus parishii. Interestingly, Asa Gray in the 1880s, recognized a significant ecotype of Helianthus parishii, which he named as Helianthus oliveri, because it was more pubescent on its leaves. Later scientists merged the two names and founded the new subspecies as Helianthus nuttallii parishii. In any case, the narrative by Harvey Monroe Hall is worthy to quote here as follows:

“Tall and stout, 2.5 to 5m. high, with thick tuber-like roots: leaves lanceolate, acuminate, tapering to a short petiole, entire or nearly so, the margins inclined to be revolute . . . rays 2 to 3.5 cm. long: disk-corollas with villous ring... In wet places: near San Bernardino; low ground near Los Angeles; Cienaga, near Santa Monica; probably also along Spring Brook, near Riverside. The excellent specimens recently collected by Parish, Greata, Braunton, etc. as well as the cultural experiments carried on by Dr. Davidson (l.c.) furnish conclusive evidence that H. parishii and H. oliveri are in no way distinct. My own no. 2162 from Strawberry Valley, San Jacinto Mt., may belong here, or may be a form of H. californicus, but is much too immature to be positively identified.”

In the first sentence of the first paragraph, Harvey Hall tells us that the Los Angeles Sunflower can grow to nearly 17 feet tall, which is just incredible that a Sunflower can reach so high into the sky. Then, in the first sentence of the second paragraph, Harvey Hall tells us that the Los Angeles Sunflower is found in wetlands such as along the Los Angeles River, Cienegas near Santa Monica (La Brea Tarpits?), and along riparian stream sides in Riverside. The reference to Dr. Davidson’s cultural experiments is a local citation (l.c.) that Hall elucidates as from the longest-running (oldest) scientific journal of Los Angeles. Anstruther Davidson wrote the article nearly 99 years ago, still insightful today and so I placed the article on the web.

Harvey Hall acknowledged Samuel Parish, Louis Greata, Ernest Braunton, and Anstruther Davidson for their significant botanical collections because it allowed Harvey Hall to make his analysis. My research into these four individuals reveals that they dedicated much of their free time to the study of native plants in southern California, a century ago. They collected and recorded many native plants that are now rare and even officially recognized by the government as endangered species. They have had plants named for them by other scientists from major universities of the eastern United States and the United States National Musuem, as well as by the California Academy of Sciences and the University of Califoria at Berkeley. Samuel Parish even named plants for Ernest Braunton and Louis Greata. They are Astragalus brauntoni and Aster greatae. Both of these plants are today considered rare, and the Braunton’s Milkvetch is on the federal endangered species list. The Los Angeles Sunflower is worthy of being on the federal endangered species list. It is already on the federal wetlands Indicator plant list with an assigned code of "facultative wet."

The renowned naturalist, Theodore Cockerell (1918) astutely noted that this native angelina, when found near the sea, has pubescent leaves: “It is perhaps related to a marine environment.” Clearly, the Los Angeles Sunflower, once upon a time, occurred at Ballona Creek wetlands. Recovery is hopeful in a geography of hope.

References Cited
Cockerell, Theodore D.A. 1918. Notes on the Flora of Boulder County, Colorado. Torreya 8:177-183.
Davidson, Ansturther. 1903. Helianthus parishii. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 2:30.
Hall, Harvey Monroe. 1907. Compositae of Southern California. University of California Publications in Botany 3:1-302.

[Melanie]

Once thought extinct, scientists may have discovered the Los Angeles sunflower (Helianthus nuttallii ssp. parishii) on the banks of the Santa Clara River near Santa Clarita, Calif.
The 10- to 12-foot tall Los Angeles sunflower was last seen in 1937. The plant is not currently held in the National Collection of Endangered Plants. However, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden has told state and federal officials that they are interested in working with this species.
Scientists are currently trying to confirm the identity of the discovered plant species.

[Melanie]

Endemic to California, Helianthus nuttallii ssp. parishii was extirpated in Los Angeles, Orange and San Benito Counties. This subspecies was thought to have been rediscovered in 2002 in the Newhall ranch area but these plants are now thought to be a new taxon (R. Bittman, pers. comm., 2007).

[Melanie]

www.ars-grin.gov/~sbmljw/cgi-bin/dispturl.pl?340

Herbarium specimen

[koeiyabe]

This thread should move to the Rediscovered Plants.
This species was rediscovered in June, 2002.

scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=aliso

[Surroundx]

Nov 15, 2015 2:08:17 GMT 1 koeiyabe said:

This thread should move to the Rediscovered Plants.
This species was rediscovered in June, 2002.

scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=aliso

Still considered globally extinct by (Rejmánek, 2018):

Rejmánek, Marcel. (2018). Vascular plant extinctions in California: A critical assessment. Diversity and Distributions 24(1): 129-136.

[koeiyabe]

Endemic to California, Helianthus nuttallii ssp. parishii was extirpated in Los Angeles, Orange and San Benito Counties. This subspecies was thought to have been rediscovered in 2002 in the Newhall ranch area but these plants are considered a new taxon, described as Helianthus inexpectatus in 2010 (Keil and Elvin 2010). Subspecies parishii is still believed to be extirpated.

explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Helianthus+nuttallii+ssp.+parishii

[koeiyabe]

a synonym of Helianthus parishii
plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.specimen.bm001025611?searchUri=filter%3Dname%26so%3Dps_group_by_genus_species%2Basc%26Query%3DHelianthus%2Bnuttallii%2Bssp.%2Bparishii