FLOWER FIND MIGHT UPSET DEVELOPMENT; AHMANSON RANCH OPPONENTS PLAN TO SEEK PLANT'S PROTECTION.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

For such an diminutive plant, the San Fernando spineflower can pack a pretty powerful punch.

The recent discovery of 20,000 of these fragile annuals long thought to be extinct could upset the Ahmanson Ranch project, a mini-city of 3,050 homes, two golf courses and commercial projects planned for 2,800 acres in southeastern Ventura County.

``It's like the painter Titian,'' said biologist Craig Reiser, who specializes in botany. ``There are very few paintings from him left, just a handful.

``So anything by Titian is significant,'' he said. ``And for botanists, any location for those plants is significant and important.''

The last herbarium specimen of the plant was collected from Elizabeth Lake in Los Angeles County in 1929, according to the little information that exists on the San Fernando spineflower. Other possible recorded sightings include Little Tujunga Wash and the hills near Santa Ana in Orange County.

``It looks like some of the habitat was the L.A. Basin, which is now urban,'' Resier said. ``There may be more locations but they are so hard to find. It's like a needle in a haystack.''

A team of scientists hired by the landowner and developer, Washington Mutual Federal Savings Bank, to do a wildlife survey stumbled upon the find in May on Laskey Mesa, where plans call for a clubhouse and the first 650 homes.

Reiser has never seen a sample of the San Fernando spineflower but came pretty close during the investigation of what he thought to be the plant in Del Mar. That turned out to be totally different species of spineflower.

``I would not be an expert on it because so little is known about it,'' he said.

Because it was thought to have died out, the spineflower is not listed on the federal or state endangered lists for protection.

However, the developer plans to work with regulatory agencies to mitigate any impact to the flower. And the Calabasas City Council, which opposes the Ahmanson Ranch project, has directed its lawyers to ask state and federal agencies to list the plant for emergency protection.

Calabasas' attorneys also believe the discovery of the plant will require additional environmental studies and, probably, a major redesign of the project.

The environment group Save Open Space, which has been challenging the project for decades, said the plant is another reason not to build Ahmanson Ranch.

The plants, rare to begin with, seemed to have favored low elevations, either washes or lower foothills, said Steve Boyd, curator of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens in Claremont.

Urbanization, agriculture and the invasion of weeds in the habitat ultimately took their toll on the plant, he said.

``It's one of these plants where there is not enough known because it apparently was not a common plant, given the number of plants collected in the botanical museum,'' he said.``We don't know much today much beyond the initial description of the plant when it was first described as a new species.

``It's interesting that it was found,'' he said. ``Now that we have a living something in hand we can maybe refine our understanding where this organism occurred and look for other areas where that might be present and know what measures can be implemented to try to ensure survival of the plant.''

Resier said the inconspicuous plant sprouts white flowers with petals only a couple of millimeters across for a couple of weeks. The plant comes up in April and starts drying out in May.

Needle-like spines like fish hooks sit around the bases of the flowers, which kept herbivores from munching on them, he said.

``It's a fragile plant,'' Resier said. ``Really brittle and, like lots of annuals, once it dies it slowly dries out and stands for a while and then decomposes really quickly.''

``It's one of the tiniest flowers in flora,'' he said, noting a person would have to stoop in order to get a glimpse of the flower.

``A layperson is not likely to necessarily find value in an obscure plant,'' he said. But ``there is only a handful of plants thought to be extinct in Southern California and this is one of them. We're talking about three to five plants that may be extinct and this was one.

``It's important to retain as much biological diversity as we can,'' Resier said. ``And to me it's a sin to kind of eradicate a species permanently. If you don't have to destroy something permanently why should you?''

San Fernando Spineflower (Chorizanthe parryi)

- Annual that appears from April to May, occasionally extending to June.

- Formerly found in Los Angeles and Orange counties, it was last seen in 1940. The last herbarium collection was in 1929.

- Blooms: tiny white flowers surrounded by sharp spines, thus giving its name.

SOURCE: Craig Reiser

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PHOTO (Color in Conejo and Simi Editions) San Fernando Spineflower (Chorizanthe parryi)