Garrya congdonii

Garrya congdonii, the chaparral silktassel or Congdon silktassel, a fairly common evergreen shrub native to the northern California Coast Ranges, is one of a small biological family of approximately twenty known species in the family Garryaceae, most of which are Garrya. While the female and male sexual organs of Congdon silktassel are on separate plants, the pendant male catkins are much more showy. This plant is reasonably attractive and neat enough in its growing habit to be appealing as a landscape species. It is stocked commonly at commercial plant nurseries. All Garrya are associated with warm temperate regions of North America. Description Congdon silktassel has a multi-furcate trunk branching structure yielding an almost spherical form. The height can attain four meters, but more commonly averages two to three meters in the wild. Congdon silktassel, as all the genus Garrya, have opposite leaves that have a tough leathery feel, glossy green on top, but paler, slightly furry and duller on the underside. The dioecious flowers are concentrated in inflorescences which cascade downward as aments of approximately three to five centimeters in length. While the Congdon silktassel manifests separate male and female plants, the pendant male catkins are much more evident, up to 25 centimeters long; those of the female are shorter and silver-grey. Although the flowers bloom in late January and February, dried bracts remain on the tree well into summer as light gray decorations. The plant has smooth dark bark, dark-greenish when young, but with age the bark roughens. New twigs are green and moderately stout. For pistillate flowers, above each small bract there is a solitary flower inside the inflorescence. This plant produces tiny dark seeds that can become airborne as small fluffy wind-blown cotton. The ripened purple to black fruit of about seven millimeters in diameter has a hard desiccated shell, but is somewhat fleshy on the interior. In the case of stamenate inflorescences, there are a total of four stamens per flower; moreover, above each bract pair there is a triplet of flowers. The unique characteristics of Congdon silktassel are its leathery convex green (with a very slight yellowish tinge) leaves with wavy leaf margins, coupled with dense individual hairs on the leaf undersides that are scarcely distinguishable with a hand lens.