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Ancistrocarphus keilii, the Santa Ynez groundstar, is a rare, tiny annual herb from Santa Barbara County, California, found in sandy chaparral soils. It forms low rosettes with no visible stem and is grown mainly by specialist native plant enthusiasts and conservation programs rather than as a garden plant.
Ancistrocarphus keilii is a rare species of flowering plant known by the common name Santa Ynez groundstar. It is endemic to Santa Barbara County, California, where it is known only from three populations in the Santa Ynez River drainage. There were 180 individuals estimated in existence, until 2023, when a few thousand bloomed. The plant was described to science in 2004.
Ancistrocarphus keilii grows in sandy soils in chaparral habitat adjacent to oak woodlands. The plant is considered to be vulnerable to extinction because of its rarity, its populations are located in habitat that is likely to be disturbed or developed, and because it apparently has no effective method of biological dispersal.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ancistrocarphus keilii 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.
