Pickeringia montana var. tomentosa
CA: San Diego Co. Otay Mt.
Spjut16195, Feb 2008

Trees and Shrubs of Kern County (Jan 2013)

Pickeringia montana Nuttall 1840 var. montana. Chaparral pea. Evergreen shrub with wide-spreading stiff, spine-tipped, broom-like branches, 1–3 m high and broad; stems green; leaves simple or digitately divided into 2 or 3 leaflets, all directly attached to the stem, or on a short petiole, boat-shaped, slightly folded upwards lengthwise along midrib, 8–15 mm; flowers Feb–Jul, reddish purple; fruit uniform in width, 4–6× longer than wide, 3–6 cm, shallowly constricted between seed chambers, seeds 1–8. Primarily chaparral, Central Coast Ranges south along Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and south to the northern Sierra Juárez in Baja California, Mexico.  Monotypic genus, species with two varieties: var. montana occurring north of the San Bernardino Mts, and var. tomentosa (Abrams) I.M. Johnston, San Bernardino Mts. and south into Baja California, formerly treated as subspecies by Abrams. Type from summits of mountains in Santa Barbara Co., CA).  Kern Co.: 3.2 miles east of Castac Lake, chaparral slope (20%) with a southwest exposure at 5,300 ft (CCH: G. T. Nordstrom, 26 Apr 1935; UC).