Pedicularis densiflora

Identification

Gallery

Description

Indian Warrior is a hemiparasitic plant that is commonly associated with manzanitas in much of coastal California. Pedicularis can grow by it's little lonesome (but it will be little, yellow and lonesome), but is happy to attach to a manzanita or sometimes another chaparral plant like Chamise. I dug one up looking for attachment, never found it. A former Cal Poly Botany professor on hearing me comment on that, confessed, he to could not find the connection after also digging up a plant. I did find some connections between and older plant and Chamise, see photo. Whatever, a pretty little perennial that is near impossible to grow in a garden. We like impossible so we do grow it occasionally, and occasionally a customer can get it to live in their yard. let's see 1% of 1%. Indian warrior used to be very common on the Santa margarita nursery site, but is much less frequent now that two fires have killed most of the manzanitas.
More here.