Native Plants of Catalina Island

Island Snapdragon Galvezia speciosa The Island Snapdragon is very rare on Catalina Island due to Bison grazing, trampling, defecation, wallowing and drooling. Sheep, Pig, Antelope and Deer have also contributed to its rarity. The California Native Plant Society has placed this species on its 1B List which indicates that is very rare and endangered. The best chance of seeing Island Snapdragon is where alien animals cannot get to the leaves and roots such as at the Botanic Garden, Airport in the Sky Nature Center, Ballast Point planter boxes, fenced- off native plant gardens and here at the Catalina Interpretive Center.

The Interpretive Center is growing one plants donated by the Conservancy and one plant grown from a cutting 4 months ago. Deer have grazed the new cutting which nearly died but is slowly regenerating since it has been fenced in. The Conservancy's donated Snapdragon was fenced off when planted and so is doing fine. They should be flowering by next spring. The flowers are very deep red and quite beautiful. The plant is a delicate shrub-bush that only grows about 2-3 feet high and thus easily impacted by Goat, Bison, Deer and Pig. The Island Snapdragon also lives on a few other Channel Islands such as Santa Barbara Island and San Clemente Island.

California Native Plant Society Database Galvezia speciosa (Nutt.)

" Island Snapdragon" Scrophulariaceae

e CNPS List: 1B R-E-D Code: 2-2-2 State/Fed. Status: /C2 Distribution: SBR*, SCM, SCT, GU Habitat: Coastal Scrub Life Form: Shrub Blooming: February-May Notes: Feral herbivores removed from SCM Isl., and vegetation recovering. See Madrono 21(5):380 (1972) for distributional information.

According to Steve Junak, a highly recognized island botanist, Galvezia speciosa is "endemic to Santa Catalina, San Clemente, Guadalupe and presumably Santa Barbara Island. Known from a single collection by J. Cooper in 1863, with no definite locality. Philbrick (1972) questioned the source of this specimen. Cooper visited Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina, San Nicolas and San Clemente islands in 1863, and it is possible that the specimen was mislabelled." The well known Catalina botanist, Robert F. Thorne, stated: Island Snapdragon is an infrequent arching or pendulous shrub on rocky sea-bluffs of Channel slope, 10-90 ft: Moonstone Cove, White's Landing, Isthmus, and Johnson's Landing. This insular endemic is known also from Guadalupe Island, where it is much more abundant hanging from canyon walls as well as from sea-bluffs. The species bears bright red corollas year- round." Figure 19 of Thorne's Flora presents the species hanging from sea-cliffs on the Channel slope.

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