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The Channel Islands: Special Places in the Garden's History (second article in a five-part series)
The Northern Channel Islands are a familiar sight for the residents of the Santa Barbara area. Situated just off our coast, the islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa are often clearly visible from the mainland. For more than a century, the plants of the Channel Islands have captured the interest and imagination of botanists and horticulturists from around the world. The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden has played an important role in making the public aware of the beauty, utility, horticultural requirements, and scientific characteristics of island plants, many of which are widely used and admired by gardeners today.
The Northern Channel Islands are a familiar sight for the residents of the Santa Barbara area. Situated just off our coast, the islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa are often clearly visible from the mainland. For more than a century, the plants of the Channel Islands have captured the interest and imagination of botanists and horticulturists from around the world. The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden has played an important role in making the public aware of the beauty, utility, horticultural requirements, and scientific characteristics of island plants, many of which are widely used and admired by gardeners today.
When the Garden was officially founded in March 1926, it was part of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. As we can tie our very beginnings to the Museum, we can tie our island legacy to Ralph Hoffmann. Hoffmann, who was the Museum's director from 1925 to 1932, made dozens of plant collecting trips to the Channel Islands. He was often accompanied by other botanists and undoubtedly influenced the Garden's new staff. A meticulous collector who was unafraid of steep cliffs, Hoffmann made many exciting discoveries on the islands. His herbarium specimens (many of which are now in the Garden's herbarium), unpublished flora of the Northern Channel Islands, and published papers on island plants have contributed significantly to our current knowledge of the island flora. Among the plants named in his honor are Hoffmann's rock cress (Arabis hoffmannii), known only from Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands, and Hoffmann's snake root (Sanicula hoffmannii), found on the islands and in coastal areas on the mainland. Ralph Hoffmann would have undoubtedly made many more discoveries, but tragically fell to his death on San Miguel Island in July 1932.
From its inception, the Garden has shown an institution-wide interest in the plants found on our local islands. Santa Barbara County's official tree and the Garden's logo, the Santa Cruz Island ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus subsp. aspleniifolius), is native only to Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and San Clemente islands. Because of its striking appearance, the island ironwood was one of the first plants brought from the islands to the mainland in the 1890s and it was planted in the Garden as early as 1928. A number of other island species were also among the first plants displayed on our grounds, and others later became the subject of intensive study by Garden horticulturists and botanists.
An island section was incorporated into our living displays from the very beginning of the Garden. By 1928, 75 species native to the islands had been planted and Garden superintendent Robert Canterbury made two collecting trips to the islands during that year. Maunsell van Rensselaer, Garden director from 1936 to 1950, made several trips to Santa Cruz Island in 1936. This tradition of collecting on the islands continues to this day.
Island buckwheats, especially the Santa Cruz Island buckwheat (Eriogonum arborescens) and St. Catherine's lace (Eriogonum giganteum subsp. giganteum) were featured along a buckwheat trail located on the east side of the Meadow. Garden staff soon learned that these island plants could hybridize, and further, that they could be very susceptible to disease if they received too much water. Several volunteer plants representing a natural hybrid between the two island buckwheats listed above were seen in the spring of 1935. This newly-discovered hybrid was named Eriogonum x blissianum in 1938 in honor of Garden founder Anna Dorinda Blaksley Bliss and her daughter Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss. Unfortunately, downy mildew was found on Eriogonum x blissianum in the spring of 1939 and could not be controlled. In order to prevent the spread of the mildew, all plants of E. x blissianum were removed in 1940 and 1941, along with all of the St. Catherine's lace and 80% of the Santa Cruz Island buckwheats. Their removal caused a significant gap in the display, and the island buckwheats were replanted in 1944 to replace what had reportedly become "one of the Garden's most attractive midsummer features."
When Elmer J. Bissell, the Garden's first official director, passed away in January 1940, a fresh wreath of Catalina silver lace (Constancea nevinii or Eriophyllum nevinii) was maintained at the Blaksley Boulder (on the west side of the lower Meadow) for a month in his honor. Catalina silver lace is native only to Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina, and San Clemente islands and was reportedly one of Dr. Bissell's most cherished plants.
Island collecting trips were largely curtailed during World War II, but the Garden's focus on the plant life of the Channel Islands increased dramatically in the 1950s. -SJ
(to be continued in the next issue of the Ironwood)
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