A rare annual wildflower in the cabbage family, endemic to Santa Cruz Island in California and federally listed as endangered. It grows only in coastal scrub on rocky, windblown slopes, so it is not a plant for ordinary home gardens; the key is leaving it to its wild habitat.
Family
Brassicaceae (Cabbage family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun
Water
Needs very little water; it grows in dry, windblown coastal scrub and is adapted to seasonal rainfall.
Soil
Rocky, well-drained coastal soils.
Temperature
Mild coastal climate; cold-tolerant as a native of the Channel Islands, but frost-free conditions suit it.
How easy
Hard
Native range
California (Santa Cruz I.)
Climate
subtropical
About
Thysanocarpus conchuliferus is a rare species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name Santa Cruz Island fringepod. It is endemic to Santa Cruz Island, one of the Channel Islands of California, where has been recently observed at only one location; some years it is totally absent.
It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States, and a review by the US Fish & Wildlife Service in 2009 suggests it should remain on the list. The plant's habitat is the coastal scrub on the rocky, windblown slopes and canyons of its single island.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Thysanocarpus conchuliferus 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.