Page Revised: 8/06/06

 

Available Sites

Topanga State Park
Circle X Ranch
Cheeseboro/Palo Comado Cyns
Rancho Sierra Vista
Point Dume Nature Preserve
Charmlee Park
Cold Creek Preserve
Pt. Mugu State Park
Castro Crest region
Upper Zuma Canyon

Date of Review

8/5/06 & 7/17/06.
8/5/06 & 7/15/06.
7/27/06.
7/23/06.
7/21/06.
7/21/06.
7/17/06.
7/17/07.
7/16/06.
7/14/06.

What's Blooming photo gallery: www.nps.gov/samo/bloom/bloom.htm
What's Blooming archive: www.nps.gov/samo/bloom/archive/index.htm
Calendar of Events in the Santa Monica Mountains: www.nps.gov/samo/outdoors

 

Topanga State Park

Los Liones Trail

  Date: 8/5/06

 

 

        This trail is largely shaded and has ocean breezes so it can be a nice hike even on a hot day.  I went expecting to find almost nothing in bloom and so was pleasantly surprised to find a medium amount of blooming plants.  California and ashy leaf buckwheat are both in bloom as is black sage, laurel sumac, California everlasting, hedge nettle, chamise, slender tarweed, vervain, sticky monkey flower, elder, cliff aster, morning glory, toyon, virgin's bower, and heart leaf penstemon.  There is also mountain mahogany, honey suckle, golden yarrow, Indian pinks and twiggy wreath plant.  (DS)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Fair

 

Circle X Ranch

Grotto Trail

  Date: 8/5/06

 

 

        The heat of early summer has pushed us deeply into the dry months of summer. Although we looked carefully we really could not find any sign of spring’s flowers, even under the shelter of the oaks along the creek. We encountered less than three dozen different flowers in bloom and none in great quantity, except perhaps for the shrub redshank which has been blooming for the last week or so. This is time of year when the focus of our hikes is on the beauty of the trail and landscape itself. For example, the shady oak grove near the Grotto becomes a lot more attractive as it gets hotter. The creek bed is dry now but the pools still have plenty of water in them and the tadpoles and newts are a delight for children. The huge live oaks and sycamores near the Grotto provide shelter for a myriad of singing birds.

       Flower highlights are few but include a good display scarlet monkey flower, California buckwheat, some heart-leaved penstemon, a bit of leather root, bush mallow, bird’s beak, twiggy wreath plant, cliff aster, the uncommon Tejon milk-aster, chalk dudleya, slender tarweed, California everlasting, a little toyon, narrow leaved milkweed, and California fuchsia. The hike itself was quite enjoyable but the flowers were only just barely fair.  (TV)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Fair

 

Cheeseboro/Palo Comado Cyns & MRCA Upper Las Virgenes Cyn Open Space

Various Trails

  Date: 7/27/06

 

 

        The high heat we’ve had over the last few weeks has pushed us deeply into the summer season and prematurely dried up many flowers. In addition, these units are farther from the cooling effect of the coast than most in the Santa Monica Mountains and consequently have suffered more. You can always find holdouts in sheltered areas under trees and by water sources but even these areas seem to be yielding paltry rewards this year. We spent three days hiking and driving through various parts of these units as part of a Park Service vegetation survey and found very few flowers doing well now except for those adapted to deep summer blooming. Even these seem more dried up than usual so the flower count was quite low. Daytime hiking in the recent heat requires special care. I have been hiking with well over a gallon of water (generally ten or twelve pints) and have yet to have any left at the end of a long hike. Be aware that much of this unit was burned in last fall's fires and has not been fully reopened for visitor use. Be sure to read all posted signs to avoid entering closed areas. Some of the burned areas are especially fragile right now.

        The only flowers doing OK at this time (excluding weedy non-natives) included twiggy wreath plant, Spanish clover, prickly lettuce, narrow-leaved milkweed, California buckwheat, California fuchsia, mugwort, turkey mullein, canchalagua, slender sunflower, and bush mallow, None of these were encountered in great number and some were found only in remote sheltered areas not easily accessible by the public. In addition, the casual observer might overlook some of these because of their small blossoms and “weedy” appearance.

        Some flowers still blooming but which seemed to be on their last legs included deerweed, golden yarrow, a few hold-out perezia, cliff aster, horehound, a few mostly dried up scarlet larkspur, slender tarweed, some sad looking bush monkey flower, downy monkey flower, California everlasting, wand mullein, sapphire wool stars, hooked navarretia, wild morning glory, golden prince’s plume, fleabane aster, a few white pincushion, and Indian pink. Overall a very poor showing for three days of hiking.  (TV)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Poor

 

Rancho Sierra Vista

Wendy and Satwiwa Loop trails

  Date: 7/23/06

 

 

        I hiked the Wendy and Satwiwa Loop trails on July 23rd, thinking it wouldn't be too hot at 8am but by 9am it was already 95 degrees.  Poor rating for there were few flowers with many drying up.  I saw wild rose, bush mallow, slender tarweed, cliff aster, milkweed, laurel sumac, mustard, wild radish, sweet fennel and one last poppy.  Rabbits were abundant.  I came across a beautiful 2 foot rattlesnake.  (KJ)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Poor

 

Point Dume Nature Preserve

 

  Date: 7/21/06

 

 

        This lovely area reached from Dume Drive is beautiful in any season with cool breezes and long ocean views.  A lot of work has been done to remove non-native vegetation, especially ice plant.  The result has been a splendid blossoming of unusual native coastal strand flowers.  But this is not their best season.  There are collarless poppies, dudleya, beach evening primrose, telegraph weed and prickly pear in bloom.  But really not even very much of any of these.  (DS)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Poor

 

Charmlee Park

Musch Trail

  Date: 7/21/06

 

 

        One of the special flowers of this park is the Santa Susana tarweed and it's right there next to the parking lot.  It's busier and more aromatic than it more common cousin the slender tarweed.  I was concerned that this might be an unbearably hot hike in July but, at least on the day we went, the proximity to the ocean gave us some cool breezes.

        Most flowers here are scant and past their prime.  These include; California everlasting, golden yarrow, slender tarweed, sticky monkey flower, bush mallow, purple sage, humming bird sage, morning glory, white yarrow, canyon sunflower, caterpillar phacelia, purple clarkia, black sage and deerweed. 

        There were some surprises.  The California fuchsia is already starting as is the wedge leaf horkelia.  There is turkey mullein and narrow leaf milkweed.  The Indian paintbrush seems to be going strong.  (DS)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Fair

 

Topanga State Park

Musch Trail

  Date: 7/17/06

 

 

        I was on the Musch Trail in early morning and there are still some displays of everlasting and buckwheat, but things are drying up fast. There is heart-leaved penstemon, a little notable penstemon, perezia, scarlet larkspur, slender tarweed, and bush mallow. (LH)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Fair

 

Cold Creek Preserve

Stunt High Trail

  Date: 7/17/06

 

 

        The predominant flower on the riparian portion of this trail is bush mallow.  There is also heart leaf penstemon, slender tarweed, cliff aster as well as the occasional elegant clarkia and golden yarrow and little patches of Indian pinks here and there.  Leather root is blooming at the edge of the creek and scarlet monkey flower in the creek.  The chaparral portion of the trail has suffered some overzealous trail maintenance which has wiped out most of the trailside flowers.  There is honeysuckle, toyon, wild rose, purple sage, narrow leaf milkweed, scarlet bugler, gumplant, purple clarkia and scarlet larkspur, but not much of any of them.  (DS)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Fair

 

Pt. Mugu State Park

Thornhill Broome Beach

  Date: 7/17/06

 

 

        The beach can be a lovely place for a walk, especially when temperatures in the hills and valleys are hovering in the high 90s and low 100s. There is not a lot of shade but the air is cooler and the sound of the surf can be very relaxing. In addition, for flower watchers the blooms encountered there are often very different from elsewhere. This environment is actually very harsh and consequently the variety of plant species is often quite low. As you move away from the surf the plant diversity quickly climbs and sometimes in a matter of a couple hundred yards you are in a completely different ecosystem. I confined my walk to the loose sands between the beach and the coastal sage scrub that starts almost immediately as you move inland. This is the so-called coastal strand ecosystem which has become increasingly scarce since this habitat has been a prime target for housing development and is otherwise easily damaged by trampling beach-goers. When I come here I always look for the beach morning glory growing here but have yet to see it in bloom. Oh well, maybe next time.

        A listing of highlights in this type of site become almost a complete listing of all the plants encountered. However, if we exclude the ever-present weedy aliens, the highlights include beach evening primrose, pink sand verbena, sea rocket, and silver beach-bur. Including the sage scrub that is quite visible to the north of the beach we can add prickly pear, yucca, laurel sumac, twiggy wreath plant, both California and ashy leaf buckwheat, telegraph weed, both lance-leaf and caulk dudleya, prostrate spurge, bush mallow, tree tobacco, cliff aster, a single little white nightshade, and elderberry. This is a pretty good showing for this ecosystem even though we only saw about two dozen different plants in bloom.  (TV)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Fair

 

Castro Crest region

Backbone Trail between

Latigo and Corral

  Date: 7/16/06

 

 

        Backbone Trail from Latigo Rd. trailhead east to Corral Canyon Rd. trailhead. We also included a short jaunt up the Castro Peak motorway to Bulldog road.

        Many of the spring flowers have dried up for the season although a few can still be found scattered about in the shade if one looks carefully. This is a good hike for the warmer months of summer as quite a bit of it is shaded. The cooler and wetter areas associated with the oak woodland and riparian ecosystems allow spring plants to hold on longer than in drier and hotter ecosystems. However, these same conditions also allow poison oak to thrive, and while most of the trail is wide enough to make it easy to stay out of the foliage there are a couple of places where the trail is both narrow and the oak is right at the trail’s edge. The middle and east end sections take you up into the drier chaparral and sage scrub ecosystems which provides a larger variety of plants over the length of this portion of the backbone trail. The relatively low density of flowers we saw might have dropped this trail’s rating down to poor at the height of the blooming season, but this is a decent showing for the summer months. There are a lot of similarities between this section of the Backbone trail and the one reported on 7-14-06 below. Although there are fewer total flowers there is some compensation in that there are some rather unusual ones. One additional thing worth mentioning, this section of the trail includes the site of a modest burn from last fall near the Corral Canyon trailhead. While the spectacular flower display reported earlier for this burn has mostly finished for the season it is still an interesting place to visit in its own right.

        Some of the flowering highlights include toyon, chamise, bush mallow, laurel sumac, woolly blue curls, some black sage, a bit of purple sage, heart-leaved penstemon, scarlet bugler, fleabane aster, an early woolly aster, cliff aster, bush monkey flower, slender sunflower, bush sunflower, scarlet larkspur, twiggy wreath plant, Plummer’s mariposa lily, a single Humboldt lily, golden yarrow, a fair amount of California wild rose, chaparral honeysuckle, California fuchsia, perezia, narrow-leaved milkweed, annual paintbrush, a good bit of canchalagua, bird’s beak, Indian pink, California buckwheat, Spanish clover, wild morning glory, white pincushion, large-flowered phacelia, a lone soap plant, Santa Susana tarweed, perennial wool star, Dolores champion, and hawkweed. All told about seventy different plant species in bloom.  (TV)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Fair

 

Circle X Ranch

Mishe Mokwa loop trail

And Sandstone Peak

  Date: 7/15/06

 

 

        Essentially all of the spring flowers have dried up although a few can still be found scattered about under the oaks and by the creek if one looks carefully. Even the perennial shrubs which were blooming well in June have mostly given up thanks the heat we’ve had over the last few weeks. The dry upper sections of this trail pass through sage scrub and chaparral and are almost devoid of flowers. This is especially true of the sandstone peak trail which is famous for its grand panoramas. Indeed, most of the flowers we encountered were scattered about in rather low numbers and several in the overall species count were based on a single dried-up specimen. Some sections of this trail provide a bit of shade, but once you get up toward the ridges there is not much relief from the sun. On a hot day I’ll carry almost a gallon of water to do this loop. The creek at split rock still has water in it and makes the picnic table in the shade under the oaks a very pleasant for lunch. This is also an area were you can still find a few of the spring flowers hiding out from the heat. There are a couple of places where poison oak hangs out over the trail (notably near split rock) and you really have to be on the watch and be able to identify it by sight to avoid getting into it.

       It’s hard to talk about flower highlights when there are so few, but they would include linanthus, slender tarweed, chamise, chaparral honeysuckle, Fish's milkwort, cobweb thistle, bush mallow, a couple of rose snapdragons, bird’s beak, toyon, twiggy wreath plant, the very fragrant pitcher sage, heart-leaved penstemon, chalk dudleya, Spanish clover, California fuchsia, turkey mullein, scarlet monkey flower, bush monkey flower, golden yarrow, Tejon milk-aster, and California buckwheat. Fewer than forty different plant species in bloom.  (TV)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Poor

 

Upper Zuma Canyon

Backbone Trail between

Kanan and Mulholland

  Date: 7/14/06

 

 

        Backbone Trail from Kanan Rd. Trailhead west to Mulholland Rd.

        Many of the spring flowers have dried up for the season although a few can still be found scattered about in the shade if one looks carefully. This is a good hike for the warmer months of summer as quite a bit of it is shaded. The cooler and wetter areas associated with the oak woodland and riparian ecosystems allow spring plants to hold on longer than in drier and hotter ecosystems. However, same conditions also allow poison oak to thrive, and while most of the trail is wide enough to make it easy to stay out of the foliage there are a couple of places where the trail is narrow and the oak is right at the trail’s edge. The west end also passes through the drier chaparral and sage scrub ecosystems providing for a larger variety of plants over the length of this section of the Backbone trail. The relatively low density of flowers we saw might have dropped this trail’s rating down to fair at the height of the blooming season, but this is a pretty good showing for the summer months.

        Some of the flowering highlights include toyon, laurel sumac, heart-leaved penstemon, chalk dudleya, chamise, cliff aster, elegant clarkia, hedge nettle, bush monkey flower, branching phacelia, slender sunflower, bush mallow, scarlet larkspur, twiggy wreath plant, Plummer’s mariposa lily, golden yarrow, common madia, California wild rose, cream bush, checker bloom, snow berry, coffee berry, Fish’s milkwort, chaparral honeysuckle, perezia, bird’s beak, hillside penstemon, Indian pink, woolly blue curls, California buckwheat, wild morning glory, and narrow-leaved milkweed. All told about sixty different plant species in bloom.  (TV)

 

Naturalist's rating:  Good

 


 

Contact Information:

 

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area

 

401 West Hillcrest Drive
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

 

805-370-2301

 

www.nps.gov/samo

 

Thank you

 

for your contributions:

 

 

Bonnie Clarfield
Burt Elliot
Dorothy Steinicke
Greg Sweel
Jack Gillooly
Judy Joy Lively
Kathy Jonokuchi
Ken Low
Lynne Haigh
Matt Friedman
Michael Charters
Ralph Waycott
Richard & Agnes Thaler
Robert W. Maughmer
Sheila Braden
Tony Valois

If you would like to contribute to the wildflower report:

 

e-mail:
Tony_Valois@partner.nps.gov

 

or phone Tony at 310-457-6408