Favoritos de velodrome

Disclaimer: This observation includes ALL the photographs I intended to take of this particular organism. That may NOT include images of the entire organism, all of its defining characteristics, or the general area in which it was found. I am already aware that this may reduce the likelihood of a species level identification.

One of two smallish plants. Rocky knob, eroding soil. Mix of formations but significant granite present. Steepish hot hike up. Could be on other “peaks” in area, esp one visible just to north.

Essentially a suffruticose perennial, woody only at base, with tall ascending inflorescence stalks.

Very whitish/silvery leaves, immediately visible against grass of roadside.

All pics were taken in ex situ soil. Photographed 02/11/2023, collected 11/12/2022.

Culture protocol: sand tray watered to near-maximal saturation each morning, allowed to become somewhat damp-dry overnight. Tolerates some direct sunlight but bright indirect may be better.

Note that it (and seemingly all other Marchantiophyta in the county) become injured and may eventually die if both wetted and fully-dehydrated within a day (excessively rapid dehydration presumably prevents the poikilohydry-tolerance mechanisms from initiating properly, as is true with a # of mosses).

There’s stork’s-bill all over this property. There is about a ten foot patch in which a few of them are partially white like the one in these photos. Outside of this ten foot patch, the rest of the stork’s-bills on this property look normal. It’s like this every year. Any idea why? Is this the plant’s natural color or a fungus or what?

I took and added many photos because I was quite confused. There were only a handful of these shrubs I spotted (I saw three others within 50 m of it and then another around 300 m SE growing amongst some grasses, buckwheats, pine-bushes, and a few elderberry shrubs) in a chaparral-dominated region with lots of thickleaf yerba santa, sagebrush, chamise, California buckwheat, hoaryleaf ceanothus, Mexican elderberry, purple and black sages, and smaller, weedy plants that have appeared in the recent rains. UPDATE: Assuming that this is a southern honeysuckle, there are at least five more plants in the hills immediately to the west, most of which are younger and more vine-like (which would make sense, as they are found in a more woodlands area). There are also some more plants in a wooded area to the southeast.

At first, I thought that this was southern honeysuckle based on the leaves (which are superficially similar), but the shrub was not growing like a vine and was in an environment where I wouldn't expect honeysuckle. The bark was totally off: strippy and reddish-brown in some parts, almost like a manzanita, but mostly golden brown to grey. The leaves grow in clusters and look new, i.e., the plant could be deciduous. The branching is quite angular, almost shaped like a pitchfork at times. Some smaller branches come off at nearly right angles. No fruits or flowers present yet.

It looks like stretchberry, but the range is a bit off and I am not too familiar with stretchberries. I don't know what else it could be, though.