Available Sites

Point Mugu State Park Circle X (Grotto Trail) Circle X (Campground area) Circle X (various trails) Topanga State Park Leo Carrillo State Beach Charmlee Wilderness Park Nicholas Flat	Revised: 3/15/04
See a gallary of Santa Monica Mountains wildflowers at www.nps.gov/samo/bloom/bloom.htm.

Join us on our next wildflower hike on Saturday, March 20 at 10am at Rancho Sierra Vista. We’ll look at blooms and Native American plant uses. Meet in the main parking lot. James Kenney will give a slide show presentation on our wildflowers at 2pm on March 27 at the Visitor Center in Thousand Oaks.

Malibu Creek State Park	Various Trails	Date Observed:3/13/04
We travelled from the Deer Leg Trail to the Yearling, Cage Creek and Crags Road Trails. With the late rains and for this time of season, blooms were few and far between among the 20 species seen along these 3 miles starting at Reagan Ranch—except big-pod and greenbark ceanothus, in full and profuse bloom. Other notables were winter cress and speedwell along the Deer Leg Trail, CA poppies along Cage Creek (and a nice skink with neon-blue tail), plus a few red maids and lots of golden currant along the Yearling Trail. Give it another week or two of warm weather for good bloom. (JG)
Naturalist's rating: Fair

Point Mugu State Park	La Jolla Canyon Trail	Date Observed:3/10/04
Spring flowers are starting to bloom here. We saw Southern California locoweeed, lemonadeberry, mule fat, tree tobacco and morning glory. Coreopsis (yellow daisies) is blooming all along the north facing slopes. Just past the area where the bathrooms are you can see coreopsis right next to the trail. Also next to the trail is lots of poison oak. We saw just a few plants of chaparral sweet pea, hedge nettle, bladderpod and hedge nettle. Some chaparral sunflower was out as were some California everlasting and white nightshade. Unfortunately, the gnats were out too and were very pesky, so bring insect repellent on this walk. (SB)
Naturalist's rating: Fair

Circle X Ranch	Grotto Trail	Date Observed:3/08/04
Although the blossoms have begun to fall, big pod ceanothus is still everywhere. Their scent filling the air. Locally plentiful are blue larkspur, California laurel, California peony, greenbark ceanothus, miner’s lettuce, mule fat, purple nightshade, stinging lupine, sugar bush, white nightshade and wild cucumber. Many flowers are represented by just a few examples of early birds and/or holdovers including arroyo willow, bedstraw, blue dicks, bush monkey flower, California black walnut, California everlasting, California sagebrush, canyon sunflower, common groundsel, dandelion, eucrypta, mountain mahogany, narrow-leaved fringe-pod, oxalis, poison oak, shiny lomatium, white alder, wild sweet pea, wild morning glory and wishbone bush. Almost done are the recently plentiful chaparral currant and the bright red berries of the toyon. (TV)
Naturalist's rating: Fair

Circle X Ranch	Campground area	Date Observed:3/08/04
Along the road from the campground area to the grotto trail you can see bush sunflower, California buckwheat, black sage, bur-clover, cudweed-aster, deerweed, mediterranean mustard, pineapple weed, popcorn flower, red steam filaree, small evening primrose, telegraph weed and tree tobacco.(TV)
Naturalist's rating: Just beginning

Circle X Ranch	Various trails	Date Observed:3/08/04
Seen in the area were bigberry manzanita, bottle brush, cheeseweed, chia, cliff aster, Eastwood manzanita, french broom, golden yarrow, goosefoot, hjillside gooseberry, hoary-leaved ceanothus, jade plant, london rocket, lupine (spp), mustard evening primrose, Parry’s phacelia, prickly phlox, San Diego milk-aster, silk-tasselbush, small-flowered fiddleneck, sow-thistle, strigose lotus, succulent lupine, white sweet clover, wild radish, wooly lomatium and yellow sweet clover.(TV)
Naturalist's rating: Just beginning

Circle X Ranch	Canyon View Trail	Date Observed:3/05/04
On 3/05/04 I hiked the Canyon view trail to the Grotto Trail and return, about 4.8 miles round trip. Species flowering were 28, with the yellows dominating. These include sun-cup, fiddleneck, southern tauschia, and strigose lotus. Also showing were hedge mustard, bur clover, Calif. laurel(bay), oxalis, Canyon sunflower, deerweed, prickly sow thistle, and common groundsel. The whites were dominant in quantity of blooms, primarily due to the abundance of the bigpod ceanothus covering the hillsides. But also in this group were wild cucumber two-toned everlasting, popcorn flower, shepard's purse, miner's lettuce and mountain mahogany. The lavender/purple/blue colors were contributed by red stem filaree, purple nightshade, blue larkspur, wishbone bush, greenbark ceanothus, stinging lupine, Calif. peony, and several blue dicks. The red/pinks were represented only by chaparral current. Other sightings were slender oats, spike moss and four lovely waterfalls. (RWM)
Naturalist's rating: Fair

Topanga State Park	Dead horse trail	Date Observed:3/05/04
Starting at the Dead Horse parking lot, the trail is uphill. There are wild cucumber, purple nightshade, fuchsia-flowering gooseberry, toyon berries and California everlasting. Near the bridge, the California bay trees are in bloom and there is a variety of ferns and mosses. There are some wild peonies that are very close to blooming. The star of this hike is the Eastwood manzanita which is in bloom everywhere, covering small shrubs and including plants large enough to be considered trees. This is a lovely hike and has potential to be really great in a month or so. (DS)
Naturalist's rating: Just beginning

Leo Carrillo State Beach	Loop trail	Date Observed:3/04/04
Since the rains came so late, this site is a few weeks behind its usualy early bloom. Many of the 25 species seen were just coming out including wishbone bush, locoweek, bladder pod, bush sunflower, morning glory, coast paintbrush, wild cucumaber and deerweed. However, lemonade berry and squaw spurge were in full bloom, and CA peony was going to seed. With our recent rains and warm weather, the number of species should double within a few weeks. (JG)
Naturalist's rating: Fair

Charmlee Wilderness Park	Wider Loop trail	Date Observed:3/04/04
Although many of the 35 species in bloom were just starting, last year’s burn area and 2^nd year succession proved quite interesting – and should be profuse in a few weeks. Much of the area, in the southeastern corner of the park, is covered in deerweed interspersed with large patches of canyon sunflower, phacelia, bush mallow, and giant rye. A good number of smaller patches were also scattered in: purple nightshade, wishbone bush, black and purple sage, CA everlasting, fiddleneck, and morning glory. Other notables seen elsewhere included hummingbird sage, chaparral currant, mountain mahogany, prickly phlox, long-beaked storksbill, and greenbark ceanothus. (Note: a few uncommon birds were also in attendance and easily seen, Lincoln’s and rufous-crowned sparrows.) (JG)
Naturalist's rating: Fair

Nicholas Flat	Pond Trail	Date Observed:3/04/04
Only about 10 species with very few blooms were noted at this site, including miner’s lettuce, wild cucumber, and fiddleneck. One exception was big-pod ceanothus (or mountain lilac), with clouds of fragrance wafting from full bushes in bloom. This and greenbark ceanothus are profuse throughout the interior of the range, especially along Kanan Road, with many areas appearing ‘frosted’ with a dusting of snow. These two species have appeared quickly since the soaking rains of late February. (JG)
Naturalist's rating: Just beginning

Contact Information: Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area 401 West Hillcrest Drive Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 Ph. 805-370-2301 web. www.nps.gov/samo	Thank you for your contributions: Tony Valois Dorothy Steinicke Robert W Maughmer Jack Gillooly	If you would like to contribute to the wildflower report: e-mail: Sheila_Braden@nps.gov or phone her at 805-370-2394