| Since the public is not allowed on San Clemente Island because it is owned and operated by the military, we are one of the few places you can visit to see this endangered larkspur.
Unique annuals also known only on the Channel Islands will find home in our garden. The delicate Gilia nevinii and Scrophularia villosa, both restricted to the Islands will begin to establish themselves as annual residents in our grassland.
With a small section designed to contain coastal strand or beach and dune vegetation, you can get a glimpse of plants adapted to this sandy habitat. Without having to travel to San Miguel Island, you can examine the silver wooly foliage of the endemic locoweed, Astragalus miguelensis, named for the island where it grows.
Coastal sage scrub is a plant community which is dominant over much of Santa Catalina Island. California Sagebrush, Artemisia californica is often the dominant (and pleasantly fragrant!) plant in this community. A beautiful buckwheat which is propagated in the nursery trade and sold here at the Arboretum, is the stately St. Catherine’s Lace or Eriogonum giganteum. This is one of many species of buckwheat which are endemic to the Channel Islands and grow in our display.
A stately grove of Catalina Ironwood, Lyonothamnus floribundus ssp. aspleniifolius is beginning its start on life soon to create an attractive over story for the Island Woodland section of this garden. The Ironwoods will eventually create an attractive shady woodland habitat where we can begin to introduce other plants that will share a spot under their canopy.
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