Is anyone or does someone know a botanist?

[Joe Schmoe]

I took this picture some time ago.  I forget what these bushes are called - it's the stuff that grows everywhere that I have trouble remembering lol.  I imagine it's a one in a million mutation and I'm not sure it's still there but how special is this?  I believe I can relocate it if necessary but it's been 3 1/2 years.

[in my dreams]

I think that is a chimera--just means a genetic mutation, but that's how you end up with plants with variegated leaves, for example.

I would email that pic to the botany department at UCR, and also to Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens in Claremont, which is associated with one of the Claremont colleges and researches CA native plants.

[Nolena]

Yerba santa.

Check out High Desert Native Plant Gardeners on Facebook. Lots of local plant information there.

[Wrightwood]

I agree yerba santa

Fire ecology:  Yerba santa leaves secrete flammable resins and waxes
which build up and make the leaf surface gummy.  The branches
are also glutinous.  Older, resinous leaves are dropped during summer,
producing highly flammable litter.

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/erical/all.html

Yerba santa leaf extract was used by Native Americans and early settlers
as a remedy for cough, colds, grippe, and asthma

[lynnc]

It's yerba santa and yummy to chew.  The Native Americans used it for toothpaste.  Don't swallow the leaves though.

We pick in West Cajon while we are riding our horses and chew it.  Very refreshing.

[in my dreams]

I would be very interested to know if that is still there, and how it's fared over time! They often don't last long. Curious!

[Nolena]

Yerba santa is a perrenial.
(And I eat and swallow the leaves all of the time, with no problem.)

[GoldenRule]

Once you dry the leaves, use them as tea too.

[in my dreams]

Yerba santa is a perrenial.
(And I eat and swallow the leaves all of the time, with no problem.)

Chimeras tend to be short lived--the genetic mutation he photographed.  Wonder if its still there.

[Joe Schmoe]

You can see that the leaves were already beginning to wither and that was in mid-May.  I can try to make it back there soon.


Are they short-lived in general, or short-lived in the wild?

[in my dreams]

They tend to be short lived in general. I think its actually missing chlorophyll (the green that allows it to make food), not just being masked, so it must be connected by the roots to the plant its next too.  (I could be wrong, its been a while since I had a botany class.)

Its very cool! Definitely not something you see every day!