Ralph Hoffmann's Channel Islands Flora:

NOTES ON THE FLORA OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS
OFF SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA

Being chiefly a list of the species added to the flora of the
islands since Brandegee's list in Zoe, Vol.1, No. 5, July, 1890.

By RALPH HOFFMANN
Director, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Compiled and Edited by
Robert 'Roy' J. van de Hoek
2003
Malibu, California


"The writer has since 1925 been collecting, for the herbarium of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, on the four islands off Santa Barbara, viz.: Ancapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel. About 420 additions have been made to Greene's and Brandegee's lists, 138 from Santa Cruz, 209 from Satna Rosa, and 74 from San Miguel.

"The writer plans eventually to publish a full list of the species on the four islands, with notes on their distribution and habitat and on the relationship of the flora of each island to that of the others in the group and to that of the mainland.

The present paper is a list of the species.................

The writer wishes to acknowledge with thanks the assistance which he has received from Dr. P.A. Munz in the preparation of the list. He also acknowledges gratefully the help which he has received in determining difficult or doubtful species, from the following: LeRoy Abrams...... Alice Eastwood......

______________________________

Typha sp.
Pool in Tranquillon Canyon, Santa Rosa Island,; not in flower.

Potamogeton pectinatus L.
In the lagoon at Prisoners Harbor, Santa Cruz Island.*

Ruppia maritima L.
In a brackish lagoon at the east end of Santa Rosa Island.

Scirpus californicus Britt.
A large colony in the lagoon at Prisoners Harbor, Santa Cruz Island.

Anemopsis californica. (Nutt.) Hook.
A small colony at the border of the lagoon at Prisoners Harbor, Santa Cruz Island.*
This plant, Yerba Manza, though in plain sight at Prisoners Harbor , where Greene must have landed in 1886, is not on his list. The writer's conjecture that it might have been brought over from the mainland by an employee of Mr. Caire and planted where it could be easily gathered for medicinal purposes, was confirmed by Michael Lugo, who was told by one Francisco Leyva that he (Leyva) had planted it at Prisoners.

Cressa cretica L.
A large patch at mouth of stream at Scorpion Harbor, Santa Cruz Island; locally abundant about salt marsh, easat end of Santa Rosa Island.

Heliotropium curassavicum L.
Common on beaches, in stream-beds, and on mesas near the sea, Santa Rosa Island.

Concluding Remarks
by
Robert Roy van de Hoek

I am amazed at the ability of Ralph Hoffmann to be able to have studied and written both about birds and native plants. He is a good writer and a good naturalist. I noticed that many of the plants that he lists are wetland plants. I have excerpted a few of those wetland plants that he found in the above list. Thus, his interest in the Channel Islands parallels mine. Sometimes I feel as though I am merely walking in the same footsteps of former naturalists such as Ralph Hoffmann, even though I know that I march to a different drummer, there are parallels that I appreciate. I acknowledge how Ralph Hoffmann was a schoolteacher of boys and then became a director of a museum. I was a teacher of children, and then I became the director (supervising naturalist and manager) of the Santa Catalina Island Interpretive Nature Center. In fact, that is when I first became aware of Ralph Hoffmann as I received a copy of a book by Ralph Hoffmann from a fellow naturalist, entitled: Birds of the Pacific States.
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