About Constancea nevinii (A.Gray) B.G.Baldwin
Constancea is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. This genus contains only one species, Constancea nevinii, which was previously classified as Eriophyllum nevinii. Its common name is Nevin's woolly sunflower. This species is endemic to three of the Channel Islands of California, where it grows in coastal scrub habitat.
It is a small shrub or subshrub that typically grows between one and 1.5 meters tall, and may grow taller when it takes an erect form. It has a branching, woolly stem. Its leaves are whitish, woolly, and oval, growing up to 20 centimeters long. The leaves are divided into many narrow lobes with curled under edges. The inflorescence is a cluster of 10 to 50 or more small flower heads, each borne on a short peduncle. Each flower head has a center of hairy, glandular, star-shaped yellow disc florets, surrounded by a fringe of four to nine yellow ray florets that are each about 2 millimeters long. The fruit is an achene a few millimeters long, with a small pappus at its tip.
Like many endemic plants native to the Channel Islands, this species was once threatened with extinction due to herbivory by feral goats living on the islands. The goats have since been removed, and the plant is now recovering. Genetic analyses have shown that this species, previously called Eriophyllum nevinii, does not share the same common ancestor as other Eriophyllum species, and is not a close enough relative to remain included in that genus. The new genus Constancea was created for this plant in 2000, and was named in honor of botanist Lincoln Constance.
