Despite California being filled with beautiful and diverse plant life, it is not every day a plant is discovered that is smaller than a penny.

California’s location and size gives it a range of biomes, from deserts of the south, beaches on the coast and lush forests in the north.

As a result, the state has nearly 8,000 unique plant species, 6,500 of which are exclusively native here.

Last month, a plant species previously thought to be extinct was rediscovered at Vandenberg Space Force Base. It is called the Santa Ynez groundstar.

“Rarity is kind of paradoxically a common component of California’s biodiversity, but the groundstar is really a special case in that it’s known for really only one verified location of Earth,” said botanist Matt Guilliams, one of the researchers who found the groundstar.

Efforts to locate this plant were coordinated by the California Native Plant Society and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. Its exact location was suggested by Dieter Wilken, who works at the botanic garden.

Before this rediscovery, the groundstar had been collected only two times, once in 1929 and again in 1995, but both were as dried samples. This most recent collection is the first time seeing the plant alive.

These samples remained on shelves in the botanic garden for nearly 75 years before becoming a formally described species. This revelation kick-started a search in 2011 of the base. The search was unsuccessful, and no other excursions were really conducted until 2023.

Guilliams, who works at the botanic garden, described finding this plant as being a really exciting process. The plant is so small and only sprouts for two or three weeks out of the year, making it so easy to overlook.

“I’m 6 feet tall, so all the botanizing I’m doing is from 6 feet in the air looking down at my boots,” Guilliams said. “For small things, you’ll drop down on your hands and knees — you have to essentially be right down with your face right up against it with a hand lens to confirm what you’re seeing.”

The search team found two populations, one small with about 100 plants and another with a few thousand of the plants. Noting that there are existing thriving communities meant it was safe to collect samples.

“Just knowing that the plant is still there, confirming that was important for all the downstream conservation work that we would hope to do with this plant,” Guilliams said.

While it is likely too late in the season to learn more about the existing plant populations, there are intentions to return to the site next year for more in-field analysis.

In the meantime, the rare plant team at the botanic garden has collected seeds and even sent some live specimens to herbariums such as the Hoover Herbarium at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and the California Botanic Garden Herbarium. Some genetic analysis is also to be anticipated in the near future.

“We don’t know what role Santa Ynez groundstar plays on ecosystems, but Santa Ynez groundstar and all those other small things are doing a ton of work in ecosystems and that work benefits us as humans,” Guilliams said.

Julia Vaughan is a Noozhawk contributing writer and UC Santa Barbara student.