 Originally described in 1793 by the French botanist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, "Abronia umbellata" was collected in 1786 from Monterey, California by the gardener Jean Nicolas Collignon of the French La Pérouse expedition, which had stopped at the capital of Alta California as part of a journey of scientific exploration spanning the Pacific Ocean.While Collignon and his shipmates perished in a wreck near Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands, some of his collection had previously been shipped back to France during a stop at the Portuguese-held Macao, including the seeds of "A. umbellata".They were planted at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and Lamarck eventually named their descendants "A. umbellata", making this species the first Californian flower that does not occur outside of western North America that was described in the scientific fashion of Linnaeus.