Most species are local. We are fooled into thinking that plant species are widespread because we only notice the few plant species that are indeed widespread.
You cannot identify most species at the SRP by using a plant list or flower book from somewhere else, such as the Santa Monica Mountains. Only a small number of species will be found to be in common between two different places. Of course, those will be among the commonest species in each place, so using a picture book from elsewhere may help to identify the most common species. The closer the other area, the more matches there will be.
If you wipe out 90% of a given area due to "development", you irretrievably wipe out HALF of all the plant and animal species that lived there. They don't "go somewhere else to live"; they die.
http://tchester.org/srp/plants/communities/9.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Last update: 6 November 2005.