Red Sand Verbena

Plants perennial. Stems prostrate, often buried, often extensively branched, forming large mats, succulent, densely glandular-pubescent. Leaves: petiole 0.5-3 cm; blade elliptic to oblong or nearly obovate, 5-6.8 × 2.3-4.3 cm, margins usually entire, sometimes ± repand and undulate, surfaces minutely viscid-puberulent. Inflorescences: peduncle longer than subtending petiole; bracts lanceolate to lance-ovate, 7-11 × 3-4 mm, papery, minutely glandular to glandular-pubescent; flowers 10-18. Perianth: tube red to reddish green, 6-10 mm, limb deep purplish red, 7-10 mm diam., lobes tightly reflexed. Fruits turbinate, 10-14 × 6-18 mm, thick, indurate, apex irregularly truncate and ± beaked; wings 3-5, without cavities.

Calif.; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora).

Flowering year-round.

Foredunes and unstable dunes near strand; 0-50m.

Abronia maritima Nutt.; S. Wats. Bot. Calif. 2: 4. 1880
Perennial, much branched, the branches very stout, 2-10 dm. long, densely glandularpuberulent and often shortvillous, the internodes longer or shorter than the leaves; petioles stout, 1-2.5 cm. long; leaf-blades broadly oval, ovate-oval, or oval-oblong, rarely suborbicular, 2-5.5 cm. long, 1-4 cm. wide, rounded to cuneate at the base, broadly rounded at the apex, entire, very thick and succulent, concolorous, minutely and very densely viscid-puberulent ; peduncles axillary, numerous, 1.5-8 cm, long; heads fewor many-flowered, the bracts lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, attenuate or long-attenuate, 8-11 mm. long, densely viscid-villous; perianth 12-14 mm. long, deep dark-red, densely glandular-puberulent and more or less villous, the limb about 4 mm. broad; fruit 10-15 mm. long, coriaceous, turbinate but often very irregular, frequently broader than long, deeply lobed, the lobes very thin and acute, usually extended above the body of the fruit, densely puberulent or short-villous, glabrate below; seed oblong, 5 mm. long, dark blackish-brown, lustrous.
Type locality: San Pedro, California.
Distribution: On sea beaches, Santa Barbara County, California, to I/Ower California and Sinaloa.

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.