Frillworts are small, delicate leafy liverwort species growing on moist soils throughout our planet, from subarctic to subantarctic and on all major continents. Under a dissecting microscope the leaves appear like clothing frill, defined as gathered, pleated, or bias-cut fabric edging used on dresses and blouses. Some types of lettuce also have leaves that appear frilled. The name frillwort: is derived from "Frill" + "Wort" (old English word for plant). The best way to describe the appearance of frillwort leaves is with the following image comparing clothing frill with frillwort plant in Palomar College Arboretum.

This plant was used on a "keying out quiz" in my plant identification course back in 2004. If you understand all the terminology in diagram the species can be keyed out using the Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California (the required textbook for class). With 100 species native to California (144 taxa if you include all the varieties), this is a difficult plant for introductory students.

Coast locoweed (Astragalus trichopodus var. lonchus), formerly A. trichopodus ssp. leucopsis. The pods are slightly inflated and the seeds rattle inside when the wind blows. In fact, Astragalus species are sometimes called rattleweeds. They are also called milkvetch presumably because of the belief in 1597 that some species increase milk production in goats. Please refer to following links for more information.

According to Kewscience: Plants Of The World Online (Accessed 6 June 2020), the genus Astragalus includes 3,075 accepted species making it the largest genus of vascular plants! I have seen about 75 of them in the western United States. Some only occur in single mountain ranges, such as A. panamintensis in the Panamint Range and A. funereus in the Funeral Mountains, both in Death Valley. The alpine species A. kentrophyta var. danaus grows above timberline on 13,000 ft. Mount Dana in the Sierra Nevada. Another rare species (A. johannis-howellii) grows in the Long Valley caldera east of the Sierra Nevada. The dune species (A. magdalenae var. piersonii) only grows on the Algodones Sand Dunes of southeastern California and adjacent Mexico. A. cremnophylax is a federally endangered species endemic to the rim of the Grand Canyon. But of all the thousands of species, there is one with vivid red flowers and it occurs among massive boulders at Mountain Springs Grade in San Diego County. I would definitely place the scarlet locoweed (A. coccineus) in my top 10 list of the most spectacular wildflowers of North America.

San Diego Wildflowers Photographed With Film

Locoweeds In Anza-Borrego Desert   Locoweed & Dead Steer In Kern County

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All images on this page copyright © W.P. Armstrong