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Acanthomintha ilicifolia
Also called San Diego Thornmint
San Diego thornmint is a rare, petite annual herb of the mint family, native to coastal San Diego County and northern Baja California, and listed as threatened federally and endangered in California. It is not a garden plant and should not be collected from the wild; it is grown only for conservation or research.
Acanthomintha ilicifolia, known by the common name San Diego thornmint, is a rare species of flowering plant in the mint family. It is native to Baja California and San Diego County, California, where it is a resident of the chaparral and coastal sage scrub plant communities and vernal pools.
Acanthomintha ilicifolia has been extirpated from many of the sites where it was previously noted in San Diego County. It is a federally listed threatened species in the United States under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). This species is also listed as endangered under the California Endangered Species Act which means that killing or possessing the plants is prohibited within California unless authorized by the California Department of Fish and Game.
This species is generally limited to San Diego County, California, and select areas of Baja California, Mexico. The distribution is higher in the United States, with over 80 historical occurrences listed in 2009 versus 13 occurrences in Mexico.
San Mateo thorn-mint · Santa Clara thorn-mint · San Benito thorn-mint · Thorn-mint
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Acanthomintha ilicifolia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
