Abronia (Sand Verbena)

Abronia, the sand-verbenas or wild lantanas, is a genus of about 35-40 species of annual or perennial herbaceous plants in the family Nyctaginaceae. Despite the common names, they are not related to Verbena (vervains) or lantanas in the family Verbenaceae.

They are native to western North America, from Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming south to west Texas, California and northern Mexico, growing on dry sandy soils. They make very attractive garden plants for hot, dry sandy sites.


USES
The stout, sweet root of Abronia fragrans and Abronia latifolia, sometimes over 60 cm long, can be eaten as a root vegetable.


Species
Abronia latifolia - The perennial flower Abronia latifolia is a species of sand-verbena known commonly as the coastal, or yellow sand-verbena. It is native to the west coast of North America, from southern California to the Canadian border. The plant bears attractive neatly-rounded heads of small, bright golden flowers. The individual flowers have no petals; rather, they are composed of yellow bracts forming a trumpet-shaped calyx about the stamens. It bears a small, winged fruit. The plant grows in succulent mats on sand or other coastal substrate. The roots of the plant are edible.


Abronia maritima - Abronia maritima is a species of sand verbena known by the common name red sand verbena. This is a beach-adapted perennial plant native to the coastlines of southern California, including the Channel Islands, and northern Baja California. It grows along stable sand dunes near, but not in, the ocean surf. This halophyte requires saline water which it receives mostly in the form of sea spray, and cannot tolerate fresh water or prolonged dry conditions. Its succulent tissues are adapted to isolate and store salt. This sand verbena forms a green mat along the ground, its stems sometimes buried under loose sand. It flowers year-round in bright red to pink or purplish clusters of flowers. The mats are thick and provide shelter for a variety of small beach-dwelling animals. This is a rare plant. Its habitat is located in heavily-traveled beach areas, where it is disturbed by human activity.


Abronia turbinata - Abronia turbinata is a species of flowering plant in the four o'clock family known by the common name transmontane sand-verbena. It is native to eastern California and Oregon and western Nevada, where it grows in desert and plateau scrub. This is an erect or spreading herb, usually an annual, approaching 50 centimeters in maximum stem height or length. It produces several thick green leaves which are somewhat oval to nearly round and a few centimeters wide. Inflorescences arise from the stem on peduncles of several centimeters and hold hemispheric or spreading clusters of up to 35 white to pinkish flowers. Each small flower in the cluster is a narrow tube up to 2 centimeters long which abruptly spreads into a lobed corolla. The fruit is a few millimeters long and has hollow, inflated wings.


Abronia umbellata - Abronia umbellata (Pink sand verbena) is a flowering and ornamental plant native to the western United States. Abronia umbellata is a prostrate perennial with thick, succulent leaves (leaves occur few to many and are slender, glabrous to glandular, opposite, ovate to diamond-shape with stems as long as leaf blades, stems are often hairy) and pink to purple colored flowers with white centers. Generally found in sandy, well-drained soil in areas with low precipitation, it can become a striking carpet-like groundcover in undisturbed areas after winter rains. Pink Sand Verbena tolerates seaside conditions and is found on the west coast of the North America from British Columbia, Canada to Baja California, Mexico. Sand Verbena is typically found on beaches and sand dunes blooming throughout most of the year. Flowers occur in clusters subtended by 5-8 lanceolate bracts. The flowers do not have petals, but the calyx lobes are cleft giving the appearance of 10-16 petals. The limbs of the perianth is bright colored sometimes to purplish magenta and the tube can be green or red but always-glandular pubescent. The tube includes one pistil and three stamens.

Abronia villosa - Abronia villosa is a species of sand-verbena known by the common name desert sand-verbena. It is native to the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico and the southern California and Baja coast. It is a short, hairy annual wildflower which grows in creeping prostrate masses along the ground. It has oval-shaped dull green leaves and many peduncles bearing rounded inflorescences of bright magenta or purplish-pink flowers. It grows in the sand of the deserts and coastlines.

Abronia bolackii

Abronia fragrans

Abronia macrocarpa

Abronia ammophila

Abronia alpina

Abronia ameliae

Abronia angustifolia

Abronia argillosa

Abronia cycloptera

Abronia elliptica

Abronia bigelovii

Abronia mellifera

Abronia carletonii

Abronia nana

Abronia pogonantha

Yellow sand verbena - Abronia latifolia

Abronia villosa:

 

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