# New Publication - The Rare, Endangered and Endemic Plants of the California Floristic Province February 04, 2026 - [ News ](/news-categories/news) ![Cover page of article](/sites/g/files/omnuum6796/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-02/Pages%20from%20The%20Rare%20Endangered%20and%20Endemic%20Plants%20of%20CFP%20Baja%20Mexico.jpg?itok=6dFuXj8X) Senior Nomenclatural Registrar Kanchi Gandhi is co-author on a new paper out in *Aliso* documenting the rare, endangered, and endemic plants of the California Floristic Province (CFP), one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots known for high levels of plant endemism. **Abstract** The California Floristic Province (CFP) is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, known for high levels of plant endemism. The CFP extends from southwestern Oregon, through cismontane California, south to northwestern Baja California, Mexico. The flora of the California Floristic Province portion of Baja California (CFP Baja) has historically been poorly documented and understood. This study provides data to address this deficiency by inventorying and assessing the native flora of CFP Baja from a conservation perspective: evaluating the rarity, endangerment and endemism of its native taxa. A total of 2392 taxa were assessed to determine this listing of rare, endangered and endemic native vascular plants of CFP Baja. This paper covers 1637 taxa of—or reported from—CFP Baja. A total of 1429 are documented native taxa of CFP Baja and represent 126 families and 503 genera. Of these documented native taxa, 1382 are determined to have rarity status and 343 are determined to have endemism status (of which 188 are wholly endemic to CFP Baja). One endemic genus (*Hesperelaea*) and five endemic plants of CFP Baja are considered globally extinct (List 1A) and 23 more taxa (List 2A) are considered extirpated from CFP Baja, but are extant elsewhere. This paper also includes 198 additional potentially native taxa (Appendix A) that are not yet documented from CFP Baja, though all of these taxa have been reported—or suspected of being present—in CFP Baja. An additional four non-native taxa (Appendix C) that have not yet been documented from CFP Baja are included as they have been reported and/or confused with native documented CFP Baja taxa. Our research also identified an additional 11 taxa that are endemic to the Vizcaíno Peninsula of Baja California Sur. Since portions of the Vizcaíno Peninsula have been identified as having elements of the California Floristic Province, these plants have been included in list form at the end of this paper, but are not otherwise considered to be a part of our project and are therefore not included in any datasets or analysis. O'Brien, Bart C.; Rebman, Jon P.; Delgadillo-Rodríguez, José; **Gandhi, Kanchi Natarajan**; Junak, Steven A.; Oberbauer, Thomas A.; Riemann, Hugo; and Vanderplank, Sula E. (2025) "The Rare, Endangered and Endemic Plants of the California Floristic Province Portion of Baja California, Mexico," *Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany*: Vol. 43: Iss. 2, Article 2. Available at: Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)