Introducing distinctive California native plants
Three contemporary Bay Area plant hunters have introduced great varieties of California natives to our gardens.
Former UC Botanical Garden director Roger Raiche, now with Planet Horticulture, claims 46.
Descendants of chosen plantsWhat's a selection? A distinctive form of a plant species that can be perpetuated in the garden, mostly not botanical species, subspecies or varieties - they haven't been described in a peer-reviewed journal.
Raiche found 'Roger's Red' wild grape on a back road in Sonoma County and, struck by its incendiary fall foliage, "I took cuttings, started growing it at the garden."
Genetic analysis by Gerald Dangl at UC Davis proved it to be a cross between native Vitis californica and Alicante Bouschet, a wine grape popular in the 19th century.
When Raiche discovered a burgundy-leafed stream orchid, he wasn't sure whether the character was permanent: "Some plants look different because they grow on strange soil or are starved for some nutrient."
Is it the wind or the genetic character that's keeping the plant small?" Smith once found some promising prostrate shrubs on windswept Vandenberg Air Force Base: "In cultivation, the 'Vandenberg' manzanita stayed absolutely prostrate, but the 'prostrate' coffeeberry began reaching for the sky.
At the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, Raiche found an unintentional cross between two species of clarkia that don't coexist in the wild and developed a self-sustaining hybrid race.