Help Protect California's Lands and Waters Thank you for helping to save the Last Great Places in California. "These could very well be the only two groups of this plant on earth." — Zachary Principe, South Coast and Desert ecologist for The Nature Conservancy in California Zachary Principe examines flowers in the field. Did You Know? There are 218 species and subspecies of plants listed as rare, threatened or endangered by the State of California. Check out the Department of Fish and Game web site for the complete list. San Diego County has more native and imperiled species than any other county in the continental United States. San Diego County contains more than 200 plant and animal species that are federally and/or state listed as endangered, threatened, or rare; proposed or candidates for listing; or otherwise are considered sensitive.

A small and endangered California wildflower, thought to exist in only one place on earth, is given some breathing room as a second population is found nearly 20 miles away.

Zachary Principe, South Coast and Desert ecologist for the Conservancy’s California Program, recently stumbled upon his most surprising find to date – an undiscovered population of the rare and endangered Cuyamaca Lake Downingia.

Nature.org: Zach, tell us what you found.

Zachary Principe: I came upon the second known population of this California endangered wildflower. These could very well be the only two groups of this plant on earth. I never found anything this rare before. It’s a very pretty flower, no bigger than a dime.

Nature.org: What does it mean to have only one population?

Zachary Principe: These are endangered plants growing in only one specific location. If something catastrophic were to happen to the plants in that location, the plant would become extinct.

Nature.org: And the impact of your find?

Zachary Principe: We now know we won’t completely lose the species. We’ve got this second population. Twenty miles is enough distance in the plant world to create a buffer for this wildflower.

Nature.org: Where did you find this second population?

Zachary Principe: I had been navigating my way through a conservation easement within eastern San Diego County which was recently donated to the Conservancy by the Wheatley family of Del Mar.

Nature.org: What caught your eye?

Zachary Principe: I zoomed in upon a puzzling small group of intensely dark blue flowers in the vernal pool area of the property that had me perplexed. I thought, “This shouldn’t be here, should it? Am I crazy?”

Nature.org: How did you figure out what it was?

Zachary Principe: I was so excited that I had to call the San Diego Natural History Museum to confirm its identity.

Nature.org: Where does the first population grow?

Zachary Principe: This wildflower grows solely within a small and thinly scattered area around Cuyamaca Lake in the Cuyamaca Mountains of eastern San Diego County, nearly 20 miles away.

Nature.org: What are vernal lakes and pools?

Zachary Principe: Vernal lakes and pools are depressions that fill up with our winter rains creating a temporary wetland that dries up every summer. But they are a rare find, too.

Nature.org: What’s happening to them?

Zachary Principe: California's lost 90-95% of our vernal pools to development. That’s a big threat to the species that depend upon them for survival. Many vernal pool plants, like the downigia, are endemic, meaning they grow only there and no where else.

Nature.org: So did this discovery make your day?

Zachary Principe: It made my month.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Zachary Principe/TNC (Cuyamaca Lake Downingia); Photo © Zachary Principe/TNC (Eastern San Diego County where the wildflower was found). Photo © Jeanne Gully (Zachary Principe)