Page Revised: 02/24/2011
Available Site Reviews Circle X Ranch Zuma/Trancas Canyons Rancho Sierra Vista / Satwiwa Triunfo Canyon Park Point Mugu State Park Solstice Canyon	Date of Reviews 02/22 & 02/12 02/21 & 02/06 01/29 01/28 01/22 01/19
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Everything is green and growing although some plants are showing the effect of lack of water. We had a great start this year with many of our winter flowers appearing as early as December. The warm weather we have had has made for pleasant hiking but has also shortened the season for some of our early flowers. I can’t remember a shorter Bigpod Ceanothus bloom up here at Circle X Ranch. The warm weather has also been tricking me into thinking that there should be more flowing now but it’s still early for many things. In addition, the extended dry spell has been hard on a lot of the plants. Hopefully the recent rain has not arrived too late and will keep the flower season alive. I recently went down to the Grotto but there really wasn’t anything new to report. This probably explains why this web site, which depends on volunteer submissions, has not had much to report so far this year.

As always, if you want to contact me or submit a flower report my email address is at the at the bottom of this page. See you on the trails.

– ed.

Circle X Ranch  – Point Mugu State Park		Backbone Trail	Date: 02/22/2011
	I always have high hopes for the Canyon View early in the season. Its southern exposure, multiple habitats, and sheltered nooks and crannies often allow it to be one of the best flower trails in the Santa Monica Mountains, especially early in the season. Part of the problem is that the flowers had a good start this year and we have had a lot of unseasonably fine weather early on as well. However this weather may have been a bit hard on some of our flowers, especially the part were we had almost no precipitation for the better part of five weeks. This all leads up to my reporting that I was a bit disappointed in this trail, or, for that matter, any of the others I've looked at recently. All told I saw well over 50 different species in bloom but almost none of them were in any significant quantity and many could easily be missed unless you took your time and bent down to check every possibility. One thing I noticed was the disappearance of several of the fragile annuals that I saw earlier on this trail and usually expect to keep seeing for a while yet. The extended dry spell may have been too much for them. That said the day was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed the hike. This trail drains well and has very little mud even right after a rain. Some of the flowers we ran into included deerweed, a couple of different everlastings, wild cucumber, couple of different sunflowers, some little clovers, a few morning glories just getting going for the season, greenbark ceanothus, the orange strands of the California dodder but with no flowers on it yet, purple nightshade, poison oak (yes, it is a flowering plant, and yes, we have it on many of our trails) wild sweet pea, blue larkspur, a few early Chinese houses, one California saxifrage (these last few on the Grotto portion of the trail just beyond the waterfalls) wishbone bush, a few different popcorn flowers, lace pod, globe gilia, blue dicks, a couple of the members of the celery family with their tiny green flowers, one early woolly blue curls, shooting stars (several plants but you have to know where to look) a few individuals of owls clover where I usually expect to see more, and some California peony. Then, walking back to the contact station on Yerba Buena Road, both stinging and succulent lupines (looking pretty dried up for so early in the season,) a few out-of-season bush monkey flowers, elderberry, virgins bower, Parry's phacelia, and finally, mustard evening primrose. I would rate the showing as "Fair" but the season is still quite early. Please note that even at this Fair rating this trail is doing better than some other trails do even when things are really popping. Hopefully this trail will approach its more typically productive self as the season matures. – ed.

Zuma/Trancas Canyons		Date: 02/21/2011
	The recent rains have encouraged a lot of early blooming. The trail is muddy in places but overall not bad. The highlight of this hike was the profusion of scarlet red Indian paintbrush growing alongside the much of the trail. Other treats were patches of padres shooting stars, parry's phacelia, milkwort, scarlet bugler, fuchsia flowering gooseberry, virgin's bower and blue dicks. There are lots of bush sunflowers in bloom along with cucumber, big pod and greenbark ceanothus. A truly lovely hike. – Dorothy Steinicke

Circle X Ranch  – Point Mugu State Park		Backbone Trail	Date: 02/12/2011
	Today’s hike was the second leg of the 2011 Backbone Trail series cosponsored by the National Park Service and the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council.  We are hiking west to east covering one segment every two weeks. This time descending from Sandstone Peak (3,111’) through dense chaparral and riparian environments to the Danielson Multi-use Area (300’) The following native species were noted in bloom: deerweed, chamise, buckwheat, black sage, wild cucumber, big pod ceanothus, two tone everlasting, sugar bush, purple nightshade, shiny lomatium, chaparral current, prickly phlox, hairy-leaf ceanothus, hoary-leaf ceanothus, eastwood manzanita, saxifrage, popcorn, shooting star, lace pod, gold fields, peony, greenbark ceanothus, blue dicks, morning glory, rock rose, lotus (species ?), canyon sunflower, gooseberry fuchsia, miner's lettuce, hedge nettle, woodland star, bedstraw - prostrate, bush sunflower, skull caps, golden yarrow, common yellow monkey, wishbone, lupine - stinging, rattlesnake weed - spurge, wooly aster, wild sweet pea, poison oak, Indian paintbrush, oxalis, virgin's bower, blackberry, mule fat. A good flower day.  – N. Cusworth (and others)

Zuma/Trancas Canyons		Zuma Loop Trail	Date: 02/06/2011
	With a few weeks of warm weather to hasten the bloom, 30 species were sighted on this easy 2-mile hike. Though many were just starting to bloom, a few species had numerous flowers, such as wild cucumber, bush sunflower, coast paintbrush, bigpod ceanothus, fuschia-flowered gooseberry, willow, and black walnut. Other notables were foothill lupine, chaparral pea, canyon sunflower, both white and purple nightshades, California everlasting, coffeeberry, mountain mahogany, blackberry, and holly-leaf redberry – many of them unexpectedly early. The non-native grasses were thick and green, giving an overall lush appearance, but much of it is already going to seed. The trail earned a “Fair” rating, with good portents of things to come – and hopes for rain to prolong the season. – Jack Gillooly

Rancho Sierra Vista / Satwiwa		Native Plant Garden	Date: 01/29/2011
	The recent warm weather has increased the blooming plants at the Satwiwa native plant garden. Golden currant and fuchsia-flowered gooseberry both are loaded with blossoms. The Manzanita (native to California, but not southern California) is covered with showy blossoms. The hummingbird sages and big pod ceanothus are just starting to bloom. Also enjoyable are the bush sunflowers and the alder tree with it’s new cones showing. – Sheila Braden

Triunfo Canyon Park		Pentachaeta Trail	Date: 01/28/2011
	We had a good showing for so early in the season. Golden top, blue dicks, blue larkspur, tauschia, woolly blue curls, Indian warrior, buck brush, deerweed, California peony, purple nightshade, red maids, shooting stars, lace pod, coyote bush, prickly phlox, two-tone everlasting, red stemmed , popcorn flowers, mustards. – Fred and Nellie

Point Mugu State Park		Backbone Trail	Date: 01/22/2011
	Today’s hike was the first leg of the 2011 Backbone Trail series cosponsored by the National Park Service and the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council.  We are hiking west to east covering one segment every two weeks. Walking through Coastal Sage Scrub and Sycamore Savannah environments of Pt. Mugu St. Park the following species were noted in bloom: bind weed, lemonade berry, deer weed, rattlesnake weed, wild cucumber, locoweed, Indian paint brush, wishbone, black mustard, bladderpod, bush sunflower, purple nightshade, big pod ceanothus, coast wallflower, fiddleneck, popcorn, hedge nettle, canyon sunflower, wooly blue curls, prickly phlox, prickly pear, shooting star, chaparral currant, greenbark ceanothus, gooseberry fuchsia, two tone everlasting, miner's lettuce, Sheppard’s purse, golden top - grass, lomatium - quite small, oxalis, parry’s phacelia. All in all it was a good flower day for January! – N. Cusworth (and others)

Solstice Canyon		Date: 01/19/2011
	With a few weeks of warm weather to hasten the bloom, 30 species were sighted on this easy 2-mile hike. Though many were just starting to bloom, a few species had numerous flowers, such as wild cucumber, bush sunflower, coast paintbrush, bigpod ceanothus, fuschia-flowered gooseberry, willow, and black walnut. Other notables were foothill lupine, chaparral pea, canyon sunflower, both white and purple nightshades, California everlasting, coffeeberry, mountain mahogany, blackberry, and holly-leaf redberry – many of them unexpectedly early. The non-native grasses were thick and green, giving an overall lush appearance, but much of it is already going to seed. The trail earned a “Fair” rating, with good portents of things to come – and hopes for rain to prolong the season. – Sheila Braden

Contact Information: Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area 401 West Hillcrest Drive Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 805-370-2301 www.nps.gov/samo	If you would like to contribute to the wildflower report you can e-mail the editor at: Tony_Valois@partner.nps.gov or phone Tony at 310-457-6408
What’s Blooming on the web at www.researchlearningcenter.com/bloom or go to www.nps.gov/samo and click on “What’s Blooming”