Overview
Loch Lomond coyote thistle is a plant with white or purple-tinged flowers that is dependent on vernal pools.
Loch Lomond coyote thistle is found in Lake and Sonoma counties in California. At the time of listing, the species was known from one population with an unknown number of plants at a vernal lake called Loch Lomond in Lake County, California. Since that time, additional occurrences have been located at Dry Lake and Cobb, in Lake County, and Diamond Mountain, in Sonoma County.
Loch Lomond coyote thistle was listed as endangered on December 23, 1986. No critical habitat has been designated.
Threats to the species include changes in hydrology that impact vernal pools, routine highway maintenance, trash dumping, occasional fence vandalism, vehicle trespass and trampling.
Scientific Name
Identification Numbers
Characteristics
Habitat
Loch Lomond coyote thistle is found around vernal pools.
Land on which the natural dominant plant forms are grasses and forbs.
Physical Characteristics
Loch Lomond coyote thistle is a plant that is dependent on vernal pools. It has slender, loosely branched stems that reach 7.9 to 11.8 inches tall. The entire plant is covered with downy hairs. The mature leaves are 4.3 to 6.3 inches long, and the leaf blade is lance-shaped. In this species, the rounded flower heads are only 0.12 to 0.20 inch in diameter; however, the stems supporting the flower heads may be as much as 3.1 inches long. Each flower head contains only five to seven tiny flowers that can be white or tinged with purple.
Life Cycle
The plant flowers after the water evaporates from the pools, typically between June and August. Little else is known about the reproductive ecology or demography of this species. However, its life history may be quite similar to that of Vasey’s coyote-thistle (E. vaseyi), producing a tuft of tubular leaves underwater from the perennial rootstock or from a newly-germinated seed in the late winter or early spring. It later develops broad terrestrial leaves in the spring, as the water evaporates and flowers in the summer, developing fruit by July or August.
Timeline
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