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Search for native plants by scientific name, common name or family. If you are not sure what you are looking for, try the Combination Search or our Recommended Species lists.

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Dirca occidentalis

Dirca occidentalis A. Gray

Western Leatherwood

Thymelaeaceae (Mezereum family)

Synonym(s):

USDA Symbol: DIOC3

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

“Erect deciduous shrub, 2 to 8 feet high, with numerous ascending branches forming an inverted-pyramidal crown. The bark is smooth, leathery, and varies from gray to dark brown or almost black. The wood is soft but very tough and flexible. Branches as much as three-eighths inch in diameter can be tied into knots with ease. The leaves, appearing after the flowers, are simple, alternate, broadly elliptic or oval to obovate, 1 to 3 inches long, rounded at base and apex, entire, light green and glabrous above, paler and slightly pubescent beneath especially along the veins when young, and shortpetioled. The flowers are pale yellow and are borne in outward and downward pointed clusters of two to four from small axillary and terminal buds which also bear the leaves. The bud-scales are densely white- or yellow-villous, inconspicuous until the buds begin to expand, and then they appear at the nodes as silvery hairy "domes." Each flower is composed of a tubular 4- (or rarely" 5-) lobed corolla-like calyx about one-third inch long, 8 to 10 exserted stamens, and a single simple pistil with a sessile superior 1-ovuled ovary and a slender style longer than the stamens. The fruit is a semiglobular reddish drupe one-fourth to one-half inch long, but it rarely develops in any quantity. The blooming period occurs from January to March, varying with the seasons.” (reslit: 2885).

This species is endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area of California. It is listed asCalifornia Rare-Threatened or Endangered. (webref: 30).

 

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Shrub
Leaf Retention: Deciduous
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Leaf Complexity: Simple
Leaf Shape: Obovate , Ovate
Leaf Margin: Ciliate , Entire
Leaf Apex: Obtuse
Leaf Base: Rounded
Inflorescence: Axillary
Fruit Type: Drupe
Size Notes: 1 to 3 meters in height.
Leaf: Leaves hairy when newly emergent. "Leaves: petiole 3-6 mm, sericeous; blade obovate to broadly ovate, 2-7 x 1-3.5 cm, base rounded, margins ciliate with 6-9 cilia per mm, apex rounded, surfaces sericeous." (webref: 3).
Flower: Clusters of 1 to 4 flowers in a pendulous inflorescence. (reslit: 2884). "Inflorescences fasciculate, nodding, (1-)3(-6)-flowered, flowers sessile or subsessile; bracts obovate-oblong, finely white-tan tomentose. Pedicels 0-1 mm, glabrous. Flowers: calyx clear yellow, distinctly (3-)4-lobed, lobes 1-3 mm, margins entire; ovary glabrous." (webref: 3).
Fruit: "Drupes yellow-green, ovoid, 8-10 mm, glabrous." (webref: 3).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Yellow
Bloom Time: Jan , Feb , Mar , Nov , Dec
Bloom Notes: Flowers just before leaf emergence. (webref: 30). Drupes mature May-June. (webref: 3).

Distribution

USA: CA
Native Distribution: Endemic to six California counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sonoma) in the San Francisco Bay region (webref: 46).
Native Habitat: Within the fog belt, primarily on north and northeast facing slopes between 50 and 300 meters elevation. (webref: 3). In broadleafed upland forest, closed-cone coniferous forest, chaparral, cismontane woodland, North Coast coniferous forest, riparian forest or riparian woodland. (webref: 46).

Growing Conditions

Water Use: Low , Medium
Light Requirement: Part Shade , Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry , Moist , Wet
Soil Description: Moist woodland or dry chaparral soils.

National Wetland Indicator Status

Region:AGCPAKAWCBEMPGPHIMWNCNEWMVE
Status: FAC FAC
This information is derived from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Wetland Plant List, Version 3.1 (Lichvar, R.W. 2013. The National Wetland Plant List: 2013 wetland ratings. Phytoneuron 2013-49: 1-241). Click here for map of regions.

Web Reference

Webref 30 - Calflora (2018) Calflora
Webref 3 - Flora of North America (2014) Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
Webref 46 - Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants of California (2020) California Native Plant Society, Rare Plant Program
Webref 36 - Jepson eFlora (2019) The Jepson Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley

Research Literature

Reslit 2885 - NOTES ON WESTERN LEATHERWOOD, DIRCA OCCIDENTALS GRAY (1935) H. E. McMinn and Beatrice Forderhase

This information was provided by the Florida WIldflower Foundation.
Search More Titles in Research Literature

Additional resources

USDA: Find Dirca occidentalis in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Dirca occidentalis in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Dirca occidentalis

Metadata

Record Modified: 2020-11-02
Research By: Joseph A. Marcus

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