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Available Reviews
Circle X Ranch Zuma/Trancas Canyons Cold Creek Preserve |
Date of Review
02/18 & 01/29. 2/01. 01/29. |
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I always feel like Spring starts on March 1st in Southern California. Despite that it seems it is still too early to say we've entered the true flowering season here in the Santa Monica Mountains. I hiked down to the Grotto yesterday and there were neither a huge variety or number of flowers to be seen. The bigpod ceanothus has largely finished here at Circle X Ranch, although the sheltered north slopes and higher elevations still have some. It had a wonderfully long blooming season this year compared to last year. I've been seeing more of its bluer cousins starting to bloom recently as well. Unfortunately the little bit of rain we got last week has already turned to dust in many places -- a measure of how very dry things are. Most of the creeks are dry or have only dribble in them when usually they are a continuous babble by this time. Unless we get some real rain soon this year may turn into another disappointment. Keep your fingers crossed. As always, happy hunting and I'll see you on the trails.
I’ve spent all of my spare time over the last few weeks working to finalize the fourth update for the SMM WildFlowers iPhone app. Thanks to the fast turnaround at iTunes I've met my goal of having it available for download by March 1st. Although I've included optimizations for iPhone 5, this update is really just the content update from last season: about 40 new plants and about 800 new or updated pictures. I really wanted to make 1000 plants for this update but stalled out last year at 997. I’ll be on the hunt again once this season picks up. ‑ ed. |
| Topanga Canyon State Park |
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02/26/13 |
| This is a lovely trail at the end of Los Liones Rd, the second left off of Sunset Blvd, just after you turn off PCH. Here the pale blue flowers of green bark ceanothus are the predominant flowers. They are everywhere. There is also purple nightshade, wild cucumber, canyon sunflower and bush sunflower, wishbone flower, California live forever and wild morning glory. It is a lovely hike with wonderful ocean views. It is a bit distressing to note the ever increasing invasive ivy that has completely smothered other plants in some places. ‑ Dorothy Steinicke | ||
| Zuma/Trancas Canyons |
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02/23/13 |
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Today’s hike was the fourth leg of the 2013 National Park Service Backbone Trail Hike. We are hiking west to east covering two segments per month. Today we hiked in the headwaters of Trancas, Zuma and Newton Canyons. The effects of our dry winter continues to be interesting.
During the last month the second and third segments of the BBT have offered spectacular displays of big pod ceanothus, but little else. The few other species in bloom were in very low numbers. However, on section number four we counted 29 species in bloom. Some timing is unusual as with the big pod ceanothus and chaparral currant still going strong. Some other species are in seed while siblings are just in bud. There were those, too, that stood out due to their extraordinarily high numbers as with the big pod (again), peony, holly-leaf red berry, and milk maids. Many of the usual suspects are finally peering out to see if it is safe: eucrypta, gooseberries, hummingbird sage, everlasting, 4 o'clock, deer weed, and many more. Perennials as well as annuals appear to be interested. It is possible that even with the dry season many species stalled their bloom due to repeated cold snaps. At least we can hope. This section should improve in March. ‑ Ralph (and others) |
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| A quick survey of Zuma Ridge |
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02/18/13 |
| Prickly phlox, Everlasting spp., Deer weed, Paintbrush, Rockrose (naturalized on unoccupied private property), Wild cucumber, Manzanita, CA currant, Purple nightshade, Wishbone plant, CA encelia, Ashy leaved buckwheat, Galzania (naturalized mostly on private prop.), European black mustard, Lemonade berry (planted at Busch trailhead), and Bladder pod (planted at "Busch" Zuma Ridge Trailhead). Most of it has just starting blooming, including the green bark ceonothus. ‑ Bonnie Clarfield | ||
| Circle X Ranch |
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02/18/13 |
| The big pod ceanothus is the highlight of this hike. Entire mountainsides are in bloom to the degree that one wonders if there are any other shrubs on the hillside. The trail is dusted with the "snow" of fallen petals. This trail features both big pod ceanothus and hoary leaf ceanothus. Additionally there are blooming manzanita and chaparral current with wild cucumber climbing over them in certain places. I was surprised at how few prickly phlox plants are in bloom, we only saw a couple. There are several openings alongside the trail that were carpeted in Padre's shooting stars which are always a treat. There was a single blooming bush of hillside gooseberry just above Split Rock. I saw two early blue dicks in the chaparral. ‑ Dorothy Steinicke | ||
| Upper Zuma/Trancas Canyons |
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02/1/13 |
| The star of the show was Bigpod Ceanothus, which was blooming beautifully all over the slopes, just as Tony said it was at Circle X Ranch. We also saw many milk maids and two chaparral currant. ‑ John and Barbara | ||
| Circle X Ranch |
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01/29/13 |
| A short way down the trail on the left there was the most magnificent display of shooting stars that I think I have seen in 15 years. Proceeding further down the trail there are more excellent displays of shooting stars. We hiked up a slope on which there were many more shooting stars at various levels continuing all way up to the road. Shooting stars are one of our favorites and if they are yours too, we heartily recommend this trail. Among the shooting stars there were Slender Pectocarya and Shining Pepperweed. There were, of course, Bigpod Ceanothus everywhere. ‑ John and Barbara | ||
| Cold Creek Preserve |
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01/29/13 |
| We hiked this lovely trail today and saw the first real flowers of the winter, all of them white. In the wooded, early part of the trail, there were pure white milkmaids growing on both sides. A little further up into the chaparral there was big pod ceanothus and some wild cucumber in bloom. After the first road crossing we encountered manzanita in bloom and some white chaparral current. It was all lovely. ‑ Dorothy Steinicke | ||
Contact Information:
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Santa Monica Mountains NRA 401 West Hillcrest Drive Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 805-370-2301 www.nps.gov/samo |
If you would like to contribute a wildflower report you can e-mail the editor at: Tony[underscore]Valois@partner.nps.gov or phone Tony at 310-457-6408 |
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What's Blooming
on the web at
www.smmflowers.org/whatsblooming
or go to
www.nps.gov/samo
click on "Things to Do"
and "Look for Wildflowers"
