The Most Common Plants of Southern California: List Sorted By Commonness

See The Most Common Plants of Southern California for information about the list below.

Caveat: This is only a preliminary, just-for-fun list. This list will change as the trail guides become more complete. In particular, this list is incomplete for annuals due to the severe drought in 2002.

This list is sorted by order of occurrences. This is not terribly statistically significant, for the reasons explained in The Most Common Plants of Southern California. Hence the precise order of the species should not be considered significant.

In order to do the sort at all, we have summed all the occurrences of each subspecies with the occurrences of the parent species. This is not a strictly correct thing to do, since a single trail may have two subspecies on it. Nonetheless, it is approximately correct. When we have more complete lists in our Master List, we will do a proper job of summing over all subspecies.

Latin NameCommon NameFamily#all#muns#floras#trails
Eriogonum fasciculatumCalifornia buckwheatPolygonaceae1011100
Eriogonum fasciculatum var. foliolosumCalifornia buckwheatPolygonaceae230419
Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifoliumCalifornia buckwheatPolygonaceae130211
Eriophyllum confertiflorumgolden yarrowAsteraceae1510114
Eriophyllum confertiflorum var. confertiflorumgolden yarrowAsteraceae210516
Epilobium canumCalifornia fuchsiaOnagraceae10873
Epilobium canum ssp. canumCalifornia fuchsiaOnagraceae166106
Epilobium canum ssp. latifoliummountain California-fuchsiaOnagraceae10255
Lessingia filaginifoliaCalifornia-asterAsteraceae10982
Lessingia filaginifolia var. filaginifoliaCalifornia-asterAsteraceae262719
Sambucus mexicanablue elderberryCaprifoliaceae34121717
Artemisia californicaCalifornia sagebrushAsteraceae33111518
Heteromeles arbutifoliatoyonRosaceae33101419
Bromus diandrus*ripgut bromePoaceae33121617
Centaurea melitensis*tocaloteAsteraceae32121616
Hirschfeldia incana*shortpod mustardBrassicaceae31121516
Lotus scopariusdeerweedFabaceae1711116
Lotus scoparius var. scopariusdeerweedFabaceae13049
Salvia melliferablack sageLamiaceae30101416
Rhamnus ilicifoliahollyleaf redberryRhamnaceae3091416
Baccharis salicifoliamule fatAsteraceae29111415
Heterotheca grandifloratelegraph weedAsteraceae29111514
Salix lasiolepisarroyo willowSalicaceae2991415
Mimulus aurantiacusbush monkeyflowerScrophulariaceae29101217
Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens*red bromePoaceae29111316
Toxicodendron diversilobumpoison oakAnacardiaceae28111414
Gnaphalium canescens ssp. microcephalumwhite everlastingAsteraceae28101315
Salsola tragus*Russian thistleChenopodiaceae28111414
Quercus agrifoliacoast live oakFagaceae109100
Quercus agrifolia var. agrifoliacoast live oakFagaceae180315
Adenostoma fasciculatumchamiseRosaceae2891315
Malosma laurinalaurel sumacAnacardiaceae2791314
Erigeron foliosusleafy daisyAsteraceae129102
Erigeron foliosus var. foliosusleafy daisyAsteraceae150312
Gnaphalium californicumCalifornia everlastingAsteraceae27111512
Hazardia squarrosasaw-toothed goldenbushAsteraceae9981
Hazardia squarrosa var. grindelioidessaw-toothed goldenbushAsteraceae180414
Erodium cicutarium*redstem filareeGeraniaceae27121611
Salvia apianawhite sageLamiaceae2781215
Ambrosia psilostachyawestern ragweedAsteraceae26101313
Artemisia douglasianamugwortAsteraceae26111412
Brickellia californicaCalifornia brickellbushAsteraceae2691313
Lonicera subspicatasouthern honeysuckleCaprifoliaceae6860
Lonicera subspicata var. denudatasouthern honeysuckleCaprifoliaceae200515
Marah macrocarpuswild-cucumberCucurbitaceae1211120
Marah macrocarpus var. macrocarpuswild-cucumberCucurbitaceae140311
Marrubium vulgare*horehoundLamiaceae26121511
Bromus hordeaceus*soft chessPoaceae26111511
Melica imperfectasmall-flowered melicaPoaceae26101412
Avena barbata*slender wild oatsPoaceae2411159
Avena fatua*wild oatsPoaceae1811144


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Copyright © 2002 by Tom Chester and Jane Strong
Permission is freely granted to reproduce any or all of this page as long as credit is given to us at this source:
http://tchester.org/plants/analysis/list/most_common_sort_by_no.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester | Jane Strong
Last update: 8 November 2002