Woodland Star

San Francisco Woodland Star, Common Woodland Star
Lithophragma affine
NATIVE

Description (Jepson, PlantID.net)

• Eudicotyledon
  • Eudicots are a major lineage of flowering plants; see family for general characteristics
• Saxifrage Family (Saxifragaceae)
• Perennial herb from rhizomes (horizontal underground stems)
• Leaves
  • Rounded basal leaves with shallow, scalloped lobes, on long stalks (petioles)
  • Any stem leaves are alternate (1 leaf at each junction with stem), with deeper, more-sharply cut lobes
• Flowers
  • Inflorescence (flower arrangement) is a single, tall, nodding raceme (unbranched stem with stalked flowers opening from the bottom up)
  • Star-shaped flowers with 5 white, unfused petals, each with 3 variably-shaped lobes
  • Yellow-green hypanthium (floral cup formed from the fusion of petals, sepals, and stamens) has a v-shaped base
  • Ovary is partly inferior (partly below the attachment of other flower parts)
• Fruit a capsule (a dry, multi-chambered fruit that splits open at maturity) with smooth seeds
• Height 4-24 in.

Distribution

• Native to California
  • Grows in grasslands and woodlands of coast and mountain ranges
  • See Calflora for statewide observations of this plant
• Outside California, grows from southwest Oregon to Baja California, Mexico
• Grows at elevations to 6,500 ft.

Uses (San Mateo County Parks prohibits removal of any natural material)

• Wildlife
  • Lithophragma species can self-pollinate or be pollinated by insects, e.g. solitary bees, bombyliid flies, and Greya moths (Thompson 2013/2017)
  • An interesting relationship occurs with the moth Greya politella, a floral parasite that lays its eggs in the flower’s ovary
    • The flower attracts the moth with a specfic scent
    • In the process of drinking nectar and laying its eggs, the moth pollinates the flower
    • Hatched larvae eat some, but not all, of the seeds
    • This is an example of a coevolving mutualism as both moth and plant benefit
• Native people
  • Ate leaves and stems as greens (Anderson 2005)
  • Chewed the roots to treat colds and stomach aches

Name Derivation

• Lithophragma (lith-oh-FRAG-ma) – from the Greek lithos, meaning “rock,” and phragma, for “hedge” or “fence,” thus “rock hedge,” referring to the rocky habitats favored by some species
• affine (a-FY-nee) – from the Latin affinis, “bordering on” or “related” or “similar to”

ID Tips

• May be confused with hill star (L. heterophyllum)
  • Hill star’s floral-cup base is squared-off (blunt)
  • Woodland star’s floral-cup base is “V” shaped
• Mnemonic
  • Hill star’s squared-off base is half of an “H” (Hill), whereas the woodland star’s V-shaped base is half of a “W” (Woodland)

At Edgewood

• Found in woodlands
  • See iNaturalist for observations of this plant
• Flowers February – May

Specific References

Anderson, M.K. 2005. Tending the Wild. University of California, Berkeley.

Prigge, B.A., and A.C. Gibson. 2013. Lithophragma affine. A Naturalist’s Flora of the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills, California. Web version, hosted at Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. United States Department of Interior, National Park Service.

Thompson, J.N., C. Schwind, and M. Friberg. 2017, Aug. Diversification of trait combinations in coevolving plant and insect lineages. The American Naturalist 190(2). University of Chicago Press Journals.

Thompson, J.N., et al. 2013. Diversification through multitrait evolution in a co-evolving interaction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California.

General References

Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.

Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.

Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.

Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.

Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.

Dave’s Garden.

Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.

Flora of North America. efloras.org.

Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.

Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

Native American Ethnobotany DB.

Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.