Rafinesquia californica Nutt. Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Native California Chicory

                                            April Photo                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Plant Characteristics:  Annual, 2-15 dm. high, branched especially above; lvs. oblong in outline, 5-20 cm. long, subentire to pinnatifid, the lower petioled, the others auriculate-clasping, the uppermost much reduced; heads scattered, the invol. 15-18 mm. high; ligules white but veined outside with rose-purple, 5-8 mm. long; ak. beak slender, ca. as long as the body; pappus dull or brownish, the bristles plumose to the tip with straight hairs. 

Habitat:  Most frequent on burns and in disturbed places, at low elevs.; Coastal Sage Scrub. Chaparral, etc.; cismontane from n. L. Calif.; Channel Ids.; occasional in Creosote Bush Scrub, Joshua Tree Wd., deserts; to Utah, Ariz.  April-July.

Name:  Named for Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, 1784-1842.   Constantinople-born, eccentric, wanderer-naturalist and self-styled linguist who, after a brief sojourn in America moved to Sicily.  He finally settled in the United States and actively collected many objects of natural history from fishes to toads and plants.  Many he described as new species.  So great was his zeal for naming new things that he claimed to have discovered and gave names to twelve new species of lightning and thunder on the headwaters of the Ohio River!  Rafinesque was given to inventing many nonsense generic names of peculiar sound and spelling.  (Jaeger 314).  Californica, indicates the first specimens were found in Calif.  (Dale 13).      Thomas Nuttall, 1786-1859, dedicated the naming of this plant with the following:  "Dedicated to the memory of an almost insane enthusiast in natural history; sometimes an accurate observer, but whose unfortunate monomania was that of giving innumerable names to all objects of nature and particularly to plants."  (Dale 72).

General:  Occasional in the study area, one plant having been found in 1986 in a small draw off Back Bay Dr. between the Dunes Aquatic Park and the intersection of Back Bay Dr. with San Joaquin Hills Rd.  In April 1992 a large colony was found just below the bluff top above the first sighting.  (my comments).        R. californica has been found to accumulate free nitrates in quantities capable of causing death or distress in cattle.  (Fuller 384).      Two species in the genus.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 221.

Text Ref:  Abrams, Vol. IV 574;  Hickman, Ed. Munz, Flora So. Calif. 221; Roberts 13.

Photo Ref:  April-May 86 # 2,3,4; April-May 92 # 11.

Identity: by John Johnson.  

First Found: April 1986.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 333.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit  5/15/05.

                                         April Photo                                                                       April Photo