San Luis Obispo County, California – For decades, the Camatta Canyon amole was a botanical afterthought—a rare, even obscure flower tucked away in the quiet folds of California’s central wilderness. With a known population once hovering around 10,000, the species was categorized as endangered and treated as a curiosity by even the most dedicated plant conservationists. This spring, that story changed.
In a single season, scientists surveying Las Piletas Ranch in San Luis Obispo County counted more than 16,000 Camatta Canyon amoles—more than the entire previously documented global population. The shock wasn’t just in the numbers, but in the location: Las Piletas is more than 50 miles inland from the flower’s previously known habitats in the Los Padres National Forest. Until now, the amole had been found only in two particular sites covering a narrow 90-acre area.
The discovery, led by the Nature Conservancy and the California Native Plant Society, could significantly reshape how this unusual flower—scientifically known as Chlorogalum purpureum var. reductum—is understood, protected, and categorized. Its striking purple blooms rise delicately from spiny stalks no more than eight inches tall, thriving between vernal pools and mima mounds, formations where seasonal conditions and topography meet in a kind of quiet alchemy.
Scott Butterfield, the lead scientist for the Nature Conservancy in California, described the flower’s presence as both improbable and poetic. “We’ve only owned the property for about five years,” he noted. “It is very likely that the plant has existed there all along.” Butterfield had spotted a handful of specimens in 2024. That initial glimpse led to a more formal survey this spring—and to the astonishing discovery.
The Camatta Canyon amole has suffered from habitat degradation, off-road vehicle traffic, and livestock grazing. Some years, it doesn’t bloom at all. But a sequence of climate conditions—years of drought followed by a surge of rainfall—may have allowed the plant to outcompete more dominant species and flourish. Tim Becker, of the Thomas Payne Foundation, also suggested wildfire and late-season rain as factors that may have awakened dormant bulbs.
Whether this is an anomaly or the beginning of a rediscovery remains unclear. What is certain, according to conservation scientist Heather Schneider, is the need to collect seeds and study genotypes now—while conditions allow. “Every opportunity we have to get genotypes into long-term conservation is a little insurance policy against extinction,” she said.
The Camatta Canyon amole’s sudden abundance reminds us that nature doesn’t always operate on the timelines we expect—or control.
