The San Bernardino spineflower is one of two variants of the Parry’s spineflower, which is scientifically known as the chorizanthe parryi. A species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family, Chorizanthe parryi is a dicot, an annual herb that is both native and endemic to California, where it is found in the San Bernardino Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains and Western Transverse Ranges, California’s Colorado Desert, and along the southern coast.
The San Bernardino spineflower, chorizanthe parryi var. parryi, is a small, sprawling herb with rough hairy stems spreading along the ground or somewhat upright. There are a few leaves up to four centimeters long located mainly around the base of the stems where they emerge from the ground.
The flowers have urn-shaped bases of woolly bracts the points of which may be straight or hooked, the characteristic which differentiates it from a closely related variey, the San Fernando Valley spineflower. The San Bernardino spineflower’s tiny flower is white and sometimes hairy.
Its blooming period runs from April until June. This plant prefers sandy and rocky ground and openings.
It is found mainly in chaparral scrub plant communities, cismontane woodlands, among coastal scrub or in valley and foothill grasslands.
It is threatened by altered flood regime, development, mining, non-native plants, and vehicles.
At present, it is known to exist in colonies in at least 115 separate locations and is considered to be seriously endangered.
The San Bernardino spineflower’s close cousin is the chorizanthe parryi var. fernandina, otherwise known as the San Fernando Valley spineflower. It too is endemic to Southern California and is rarer than the San Bernardino spineflower, and was known to exist in just 10 locations in the foothills around the San Fernando Valley and ranges in Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties several years ago and in fewer than ten today. Some of its habitat has been lost to development, and botanists thought the species was extinct from 1929 until it was rediscovered in 1999. It is now only known from two populations: on Laskey Mesa in Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve of the Simi Hills in Ventura County; and on the proposed Newhall Ranch mega−development site in the Santa Clara River Valley at the base of the northern Santa Susana Mountains in Los Angeles County. It is a California Department of Fish and Wildlife and California Native Plant Society listed critically endangered species.
From Wikiperia and http://www.rareplants.cnps.org