FLORA
Collaborative Conservation: Understanding and Protecting the Rare Beach Spectaclepod By Heather Schneider and Matt Guilliams /Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Beach spectaclepod has flowers with white petals and a sweet smell. Photo: Heather Schneider
Situated high atop coastal dunes on the southern end of the Punta Mazo Nature Reserve grows a diminutive plant with a curious common name: the beach spectaclepod. Known to botanists as Dithyrea maritima, this member of the mustard family (Brassicaceae) gets its colloquial name from the unusual shape of its fruits, which bear a striking resemblance to old-fashioned spectacles or glasses. These fruits are not the only things that make beach spectaclepod unique. The species is incredibly rare, found only on coastal dunes from San Luis Obispo County, USA, to northwestern Baja California, Mexico. As a dune specialist, this perennial species takes advantage of the loose, shifting substra-
One important way to document botanical diversity is by collecting herbarium specimens. Here, we prepare to collect a specimen of beach spectaclepod. Photo: Heather Schneider
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