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Plant Profile

Orcutt's Bird's-beak (Dicranostegia orcuttiana)

Photo Credit: Lee Ripma

Global Rank: G3 - Vulnerable
Legal Status: N/A
Family: Orobanchaceae
State: CA
Nature Serve ID: 140438
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Date Inducted in National Collection:

Description:

Orcutt's bird's beak is an annual herb that is native to coastal sage scrub communities within California and Baja California. They are hemiparasitic, inserting slender projections into the roots of host plants to obtain some of their nutritional requirements, while also photosynthesizing to produce their own energy. The plant grows to a maximum of half a meter in height, characterized by its green to reddish-green coloring. Each flower may grow up to 2.5 centimeters long and is enclosed by leaflike structures. This species is significantly threatened by urbanization, yielding approximately 6-20 extant occurrences (CNPS 2001). This species has been listed as critically imperiled since 1990, and may be headed towards possible extirpation within California as resources continue to be limited by urban growth and development.

Where is Orcutt's Bird's-beak (Dicranostegia orcuttiana) located in the wild?

Habitat:

Coastal sage scrub habitat

Distribution:

Found only in the watersheds of the Sweetwater River and the Tijuana River in southern San Diego County and northern Baja Mexico.

States & Provinces:

Orcutt's Bird's-beak can be found in California

Which CPC Partners conserve Orcutt's Bird's-beak (Dicranostegia orcuttiana)?

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 06/09/17

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

Katie Heineperson

05/07/2021

In our 2021 seed bulking experiment of Orcutt’s birds beak, (Dicranostegia orcuttiana), we initially had high germination in all treatment groups but vegetative growth is now strongest in raised beds in the treatment group: compost enhanced soil plant with the host plant Jojoba. Treatments include a factorial design of soil = potting mix only or compost enhanced & host = no host, Sagebrush host, Jojoba host.

Katie Heineman

01/29/2021

At the San Diego Zoo Native Plant Seed Bank, our plant propagator Tobin Weatherson has been working to develop a successful seed bulking strategy for rare, hemiparasitic annual Orcutt's Bird's beak (Dicranostegia orcuttiana). Last summer, we conducted a pot experiment in which we grew 200 plants in three treatments (with and without a host plant) and under high and low watering regimes. While we found that the Dicranostegia seedlings in host post had higher survivorship than plants without hosts, no plants ultimately produced seed. This month (January 2021), we started a new experiment in garden beds, in hopes that this setting more closely mirrors their natural environment. We have six treatments including three host plant treatments (no host, host = California sagebrush, host = Jojoba) and two soil substrates (a standard potting mix with sunshine #4, perlite, vermiculate and a soil mix from a supply that contains compost).

09/01/2020

Based on an September 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, San Diego Zoo Global holds 3 accessions of Dicranostegia orcuttiana in orthodox seed collection. There are as many as 162105 seeds of this species in their collection - although some may have been used for curation testing or sent to back up.

08/05/2020

Based on an August 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, San Diego Zoo Global has collected 3 seed accessions of Dicranostegia orcuttiana from 2 plant occurrences listed in the California Natural Diversity Database. These collections together emcompass 298 maternal plants

Nature Serve Biotics

05/02/2017

Cordylanthus orcuttianus is known from six to twenty extant occurrences in San Diego County, California, and Baja California, Mexico. Status and abundance information from Mexico is not availabe. Urbanization is a serious threat to this species.