Yerba Santa

February 9, 2004 - Lompoc Yerba Santa
Endangered Species of the Month

The pretty purple flower pictured here is the endangered Lompoc Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon Capitatum), or LYS, as the dedicated staff of edhat.com calls it. LYS is an evergreen shrub with smooth, sticky leaves, and branched bunches of tubular, lavender flowers. There are seven other non-endangered species of Yerba Santa (Narrow-leaf, Indian Knob, California, Thick-leaf, Woolly, Pacific, and Hairy). All species are only found in California and nearby states.

California Yerba Santa, the most popular species, is big in the HERB world. It is mostly used as a decongestant, however, some claim it has magical powers and can be used in spells relating to spiritual protection. As one website says,

“Yerba Santa frees the lungs and heart to acknowledge and release stored emotional experience. Yerba Santa was regarded as a holy herb by the native peoples, because the process of awakening, and claiming deep soul experience leads to the indwelling Temple of the Spiritual Self. It is often in those places where the soul retains the most profound pain or trauma, that the strongest teachings of the Spiritual Self can also be realized.”

Far Out!

No one makes such claims about LYS. This species is found in small populations at only about 10 sites in the whole world - all in Santa Barbara County. All of the sites are undeveloped land. At least 3 sites occur on Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB); the rest are on private lands. That’s all there is, just the 10 of ‘em. No more.

You see, the problem with being a native plant in a constantly changing world is that here you are wanting to grow wherever the growing is best, and all these people are trying to get rid of you so their land won’t be a fire hazard, or so they can make room for other plants that may not be from around here. Well, you’re just a native plant, and dammit, you have feelings, too. Also, you’re not a very good seed-producer (hey, nobody’s perfect), so when they get rid of you, you’re a little hesitant to come back. Well, pretty soon, they figure out there’s not very much Lompoc Yerba Santa to kick around anymore – who’s sorry now? And lo and behold, you find your bad self on the endangered species list.

So what if someone wanted to develop one of the wide-open spaces that contains LYS? Well, don’t start ordering plumbing fixtures just yet! With the exception of VAFB, who can do what they want in the name of National Security, the lucky petitioner would have to spend several months preparing an environmental impact report, answering questions and complaints of neighbors and environmental groups posing as neighbors, and mitigating harm to LYS and any other listed species found on the land.

There are eight different species of Yerba Santa .... (use scroll bar to see them all)

Of course, no one really cares about the other seven species of Yerba Santa. Like, what are they - chopped liver? Well there’s plenty of them, aren’t there? Ah – it’s good to be protected.

Proof positive that edhat.com subscribers are smarter than the average bear ... 4 people were able to identify the plant from the 215 x 215 pixel image. For the record, they were edsup, shell, sbsurfer, and edsailor. Job well done to the four of them. But there can only be one winner, and that is edsup whose name was randomly picked from the lucky edhat. edsup wins a See’s candy gift certificate. Yerba Santa was good to edsup this year.

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