Herb May Get Endangered Tag : Protection: Federal agency has proposed adding rare Braunton’s milk-vetch to list. Officials say two planned Anaheim developments are its most immediate threats.

A rare pink-flowered herb found in two canyons primed for development has been proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the nation’s endangered species list.

The most immediate threats to Braunton’s milk-vetch are in Coal and Gypsum canyons in the Santa Ana Mountains of east Anaheim, federal officials say. But it also is imperiled at its other known locations--Ventura County’s Simi Hills and Los Angeles County’s Santa Monica Mountains.

“At almost every place it exists, it’s in jeopardy, primarily from development,” said Tim Thomas, a botanist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Ventura field office.

Along with last year’s proposal to list the California gnatcatcher, the move toward declaring the plant endangered could signal the beginning of a wave of listings in Southern and Central California during the next few years.

The agency has proposed adding about 20 other Southern California plants to the national list, which means final decisions are less than a year away. Another 70 animals and plants--including three other birds in Orange County--are not as far along in the process, but are still classified as top candidates, with some facing court-ordered deadlines.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published its proposal to protect the milk-vetch on Nov. 30, and has a year to make a decision. Public input will be accepted through Jan. 29. Like the gnatcatcher, a Southern California songbird, the milk-vetch is granted no federal protection during the review.

Earlier this year, the Anaheim City Council approved two large developments without requiring the landowners to avoid the plants or mitigate the damage. Hon Development Co. plans to build 1,550 homes in Coal Canyon, while the Irvine Co. plans Mountain Park, a community of up to 7,996 homes in adjoining Gypsum Canyon.

Representatives of the two large development companies said they have no plans to alter their projects or fight the proposal. They say many of the plants were found on land slated for open space, so they believe that their projects would not be significantly affected by a listing. Neither company has firm plans for start of construction.

Local environmentalists are pleased by the agency’s proposal, although they had hoped that the federal agency would grant an immediate, emergency listing.

“It definitely should be listed. It’s one of the rarest plants around,” said Connie Spenger, a botanist and president of Friends of Tecate Cypress, an environmental group trying to preserve Coal Canyon. “It’s a fantastic plant. It’s really pretty. . . . We’re working as hard as we can to prevent further destruction of the Braunton’s milk-vetch.”

When a plant is listed as endangered, private landowners do not have to obtain permits or formally consult with the federal wildlife agency, as they must when an animal is declared endangered. However, they have to document the threat and are encouraged by the federal agency to develop scientifically sound ways to protect it.

“Once a plant is listed, they (developers) can’t ignore it,” Thomas said. “I would think project redesign is feasible. It’s just a matter of whether they are willing to try to come up with protection or not.”

Compensating for damage to the milk-vetch is more difficult than for many species, since it cannot be transplanted and is sensitive to any urban intrusion, according to botanists. The only way to save it, they say, is to leave the land untouched and surround it with a large buffer.

“Nobody knows how to move it to another location,” Thomas said. “It is a plant that absolutely depends on on-site, intact preservation.”

The perennial herb has been considered for the federal endangered species list for the past 18 years. But changes in the law and enormous backlogs at the agency delayed the listing proposal until the Anaheim development plans came to the attention of federal officials.

A member of the pea family, the plant grows only in limestone in mountainous areas lined with chaparral. It can reach five feet tall, and its pointed, fuzzy, gray-green leaves spread into rambling plants with tight clusters of mauve-colored flowers on long stalks.

Its most remarkable characteristic is that it grows for only about three years after wildfires, which normally occur in intervals of 20 to 50 years. In the meantime, thousands of its seeds lie undetectable and dormant until they are stimulated by the next fire.

Fewer than 300 plants are currently growing, making it one of the rarest plants found, according to the agency’s proposed rule. Six of its eight remaining populations are jeopardized by recently approved developments, while the others are indirectly threatened, the report says.

Together, the Anaheim developments “will eliminate 50% of the population in the Santa Ana Mountains,” the wildlife agency report says. Another site has recently been wiped out in Monrovia, and “significant losses” have occurred recently at two others, in Santa Ynez Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains and Ventura County’s Simi Hills, the federal document says. Still another is endangered by an approved development in the Simi Hills.

After a sprawling 1982 fire, more than 400 Braunton’s milk-vetches were found in Coal Canyon in 1986, including 151 in the lower ridge the city has approved for development, according to a field report written by Spenger. The plants haven’t been seen there since 1988, but dormant seeds probably remain.

Michael Mohler, vice president of Laguna Hills-based Hon Development, said “the vast majority” of the plants are in areas of Coal Canyon slated for open space.

“We will be very responsive to whatever suggestions come out of any listing. But at this point in time, the plant is not listed, and there are no suggested mitigation measures. There is no data available on how to handle this plant. . . . Nobody can even find it right now because it trails fire,” he said. “It’s just a hypothetical listing at this point, and should that stop a development and jeopardize so many jobs?”

The federal proposal is the latest obstacle to the company’s development project. Coal Canyon is home to rare Tecate cypress trees and provides the only pathway for mountain lions to cross between the Chino Hills and Santa Ana Mountains.

Federal officials are already reviewing a petition to declare the local mountain lions endangered. The state attorney general’s office and environmentalists sued the city of Anaheim to stop the development on environmental grounds, although the lawsuits were recently dismissed.

Meanwhile, a conservation group is developing a 1994 ballot measure to seek bond money to buy the land, which has been appraised at $10 million to $12 million. Mohler said the company is willing to negotiate, but that figure, if it includes all 663 acres, is “about 50% low.” The company already sold nearly 1,000 acres in Coal Canyon to the state for $4 million to preserve a Tecate cypress grove.

In adjoining Gypsum Canyon, two populations of the milk-vetch were found in the mid-80s, but on land next to the proposed Mountain Park community that will remain undeveloped, according to the environmental document for the Irvine Co. project.

“Certainly if the development moves forward, then we’ll continue to watch for it. But at this point, the work for the (environmental impact report) indicates it was found in areas that will remain open space,” said Irvine Co. spokeswoman Dawn McCormick. “It doesn’t appear to impact our project.”

Botanists, however, say the plants are often killed by adjacent development even if the land remains ungraded.

“The rest of the population will probably disappear as a result of that development. They don’t bulldoze the site, but the site is forever changed,” Thomas said.

Plant in Peril

Common name: Braunton’s milk-vetch.

Scientific name: Astragalus brauntonii.

Range: Three populations remain: Orange County’s Coal and Gypsum canyons, portions of Ventura County’s Simi Hills and Santa Ynez Canyon in Los Angeles County’s Santa Monica Mountains.

Description: Perennial herb in pea family, with fuzzy, gray-green leaves. Can reach height of five feet. Mauve-colored flowers grow in tight clusters on long stalks.

Habitat: Found among chaparral; grows only out of limestone.

Unusual characteristics: Seeds lie dormant, usually for decades, until they are stimulated by wildfires. Plants then appear for only about three years before they disappear.

Threats: Plant has always been rare. Now considered on verge of extinction because of development and alteration of normal fire cycles. No known sites not threatened by new development, including Coal and Gypsum canyons. Only a small part is on public land, where the plant is jeopardized by recreational activities.

Nomenclature: This milk-vetch is named after Ernest Braunton, editor of California Floriculturist. He discovered the plant in 1902 in what is now West Hollywood. The name-- milk-vetch--comes from the old belief that goats eating the plant experienced increased milk yield.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Orange County’s Rare Plants

From succulents to cypress trees, more than 40 plants native to Orange County are considered rare by botanists. But only four are already protected by the state or federal Endangered Species Act. Here is a sampling of the wide variety:

Santa Ana River woolly-star

The small gray-green shrub with bright blue flowers is considered extinct in Orange County. It has survived, though, along the Santa Ana River in Redlands and Mentone. It requires periodic flooding, and was wiped out in Orange County when the river was channelized for flood control.

Status: State endangered species; federal endangered species

Salt marsh bird’s beak

An annual herb with grayish-green, hairy leaves, it has spikes of flowers with beaklike yellowish tips and purplish, pouch-shaped lower petals. It grows in the higher reaches of coastal salt marshes--an extremely rare habitat--and is flooded by high tides. In Orange County, it is found in protected areas of Upper Newport Bay.

Status: State endangered species; federal endangered species

Big-leaved crown-beard

This perennial shrub of the sunflower family was named a threatened species in 1990. It grows up to three feet tall and bears clusters of bright yellow flowers. It grows mostly on steep, north-facing slopes within 1 1/2 miles of the ocean. It is found in the United States in only two canyons, totaling about 20 acres, in southern Laguna Beach. State officials say it is declining due to residential development.

Status: State threatened species

Laguna Beach dudleya

The only place this succulent with yellow-green flowers grows in the world is the steep, north-facing cliffs of canyons near Laguna Beach. Preservation of Laguna Canyon, which the city and county is buying from the Irvine Co., is expected to help save this plant from extinction.

Status: State threatened species; candidate for federal listing

Tecate cypress

Groves of these rare trees are found in only four locations in the Unites States, including Coal and Gypsum canyons in north Orange County. It has bright green leaves, cherry-red bark and unusual cone clusters holding seeds. The oldest and largest living Tecate cypress, about 150 years old, is growing in Coal Canyon.

Status: Rejected for state listing; candidate for federal listing

Many-stemmed dudleya

The leaves of this succulent die in spring, and it cannot be located between July and March because it remains below ground. It grows in chaparral and scrub, in dry, stony soils that often have high clay content. It has been found in Coal Canyon.

Status: Candidate for federal listing

Orange County Turkish rugging

This annual, in the buckwheat family, has rose-colored brittle stems and small, reddish flowers in dense clusters. It grows on dry, grassy slopes. It blooms from April to June, and is noticed most on dry summer days when it casts a rosy color to the arid landscape.

Status: Candidate for federal listing

Prickly poppy

This annual plant has large, showy flowers with broad white petals and yellow stems. It grows in chaparral and woodlands in the Santa Ana Mountains, above 5,000 feet. It has been seen four miles east of Coal Canyon.

Status: Candidate for federal listing

Heart-leaved pitcher sage

This shrubby, aromatic plant, in the mint family, grows only in the northern Santa Ana Mountains, at one site in San Diego and five in Baja California. It grows between 2,000 and 4,000 feet and has been found in Coal and Gypsum canyons.

Status: Candidate for federal listing

Sources: 1991 Annual Report on the Status of California State Listed Threatened and Endangered Animals and Plants; Checklist of Vascular Plants of Orange County; Nature Conservancy Coal Canyon Management Plan; Researched by MARLA CONE / Los Angeles Times