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Page Revised: 3/9/09 |
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Available Site Reviews Circle X Ranch Rancho Sierra Vista / Satwiwa Malibu Creek State Park Peter Strauss Ranch Solstice Canyon Las Virgenes Canyon
Open Space Escondido Canyon Cold Creek Preserve Backbone Trail Rocky Oaks |
Date of Reviews 3/7. 3/3. 3/1. 3/1. 2/28. 2/27. 2/25. 2/22. 2/14. 2/1. |
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What's Blooming photo gallery: http://www.researchlearningcenter.com/bloom/bloom.htm |
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The beginning of March is often the
true beginning of the wildflower season and this year seems to be no
exception. A lot has popped out in the last week or so. This is the time of year when the longer
days and warmer weather rapidly increase the displays of flowers. Up here at
Circle X Ranch both of the blue chaparral lilacs (greenbark ceanothus
and-hairy leaved ceanothus) are blooming well now. –ed. |
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Circle X Ranch |
Canyon
View Trail |
Date: 3/7 |
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While not as dramatic as the Grotto
Trail or the Sandstone Peak Trail, the Canyon View Trail is often one of the
better flower trails at CXR. The cool sunny weather and lush greens of the
new growth made for pleasant hiking. There are a large number of young plants
suggesting that if the remainder of the Spring weather cooperates we should
have a very good bloom this year. About forty five species in bloom, although
most are not appearing in great numbers yet. Highlights include greenbark
ceanothus, both white and purple nightshades, blue dicks, fiddleneck,
eucrypta, a couple of blue larkspur (with many plants in evidence), a few
wishbone bush, California collarless poppy, a good crop of lace pod, a couple
of different lotus, some lupines (doing best along the shoulders of the roads
were it is warmest), several different plants in the celery family all
displaying their umbellate clusters of very tiny flowers, skullcap, one owl's
clover, pygmy weed, California peony, shooting stars still doing well,
henbit, and virgins bower. I would give this display a "Fair"
rating with expectations that it will rise quickly. –ed. |
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Rancho Sierra Vista /
Satwiwa |
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Date: 3/3 |
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The Overflow parking area is a pretty
good area to see wildflowers right now. There are lots of Shooting Stars,
especially in broad patches on the north side of the road. There was also a
fair quality of red-stem filaree. If
you walk along the small path towards the ravine, there is a fairly good
cluster of Indian Paintbrush that is just about to reach peak bloom. In this
area there are a lot of John Jump-ups throughout. Most can be found next to
other large plants and not as much in the open grasslands. The popcorn flower
population is fair but can be easily missed because it is in only small
patches. We even found a California Poppy in bloom and two Chocolate Lilly
flowers with full and partial blooms. Along the road there was plenty of
mustard weed and some telegraph weed. Quite a bit of soap root was seen (not
in bloom at this time but gives hope to later on.) – M. Theune,
L. Okazaki, & R. Cromwell |
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Malibu Creek State Park |
Misc.
West-end Trails |
Date: 3/1 |
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We parked at Cornell & Mulholland
and then hiked past the Regan Ranch Ranger Station. Yearling Trail : Buck brush, Cheeseweed,
Fiddleneck (Common), Henbit, Lupines (soon -- 10 days?), Miner's lettuce,
Peppergrass, Red-stemmed filaree, Redmaids, Wild radish (white & Pink),
Winter vetch ?? (the meadow areas were crammed with what will be either
Winter vetch or Spring vetch -- no blooms yet but there will be soon -
perhaps 10 days or so ??) Deer Leg
Trail : Chickweed, Fennel, Wild cucumber, Wild sweet pea (soon - 10 days?).
I'd be happy to share photos and have any mis-identifications
corrected: socalwildflowers@earthlink.net.
– S.L. Dickey. |
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Peter Strauss Ranch |
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Date: 3/1 |
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Buck brush, California Maiden-hair fern,
Canyon sunflower (soon - 2 wks?), Chickweed, Coastal wood-fern, [California
wood fern], Fiddleneck (Common), Henbit, Milkmaids, Miner's lettuce, Wild
sweet pea (soon - 2 wks?), Wild cucumber.
– S.L. Dickey. |
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Solstice Canyon |
Misc.
Trails |
Date: 2/28 |
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Since I hiked three trails in the
park I tried to keep track of where I saw what. If a flower name is followed
by the abbreviation of a specific trail then I saw it on that trail only.
Rising Sun Trail (RS), Solstice Canyon Trail (SC), Dry Canyon Trail (DC.)
Bermuda buttercup, Bicolored everlasting,
[Two-toned everlasting], Bindweed, Blue dicks (RS), Bur clover, California
sunflower, [ Bush sunflower] (RS), California poppy (SC), California
Blackberry, Canyon sunflower (DC, SC), Castor bean, [Castor plant] -- right
at Tropical Terrace, Common eucrypta, Deerweed, Giant horsetail (sterile
stem), Greenbark ceanothus (RS), Henbit (SC), London rocket (SC), Parry's
phacelia, Periwinkle, Popcorn flower (RS), Purple nightshade, Red-stemmed
filaree, Sticky phacelia, Stinging lupine (RS), Succulent lupine ?, Terracina
Spurge (SC) Virgin's bower (RS), White nightshade, Wild cucumber (RS) (DC),
Wild sweet pea, Woolly paintbrush (RS)
– S.L. Dickey. |
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Las Virgenes Canyon Open
Space |
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Date: 2/27 |
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Bicolor everlasting [Two-toned
everlasting], Bindweed, Buck brush, Bur clover, California sunflower [Bush sunflower],
Chia sage, London rocket, Fiddleneck, Miner's lettuce, Mule fat, Peppergrass,
Popcorn flower, Purple nightshade, Red-stemmed filaree, Wild cucumber,
Wishbone bush. – S.L. Dickey. |
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Escondido Canyon Natural
Area |
Escondido Falls
Trail |
Date: 2/25 |
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Bermuda buttercup, Bicolored everlasting [Two-toned everlasting], Blue
dicks, Bur clover, California buckwheat, California Maiden-hair fern, Canyon
sunflower, Castor bean [Castor plant], Coastal wood-fern [California wood
fern], Coffee fern, Common sunflower, Fennel, Fleabane aster, Greenbark
ceanothus, Hummingbird sage, Periwinkle, Popcorn flower, Red-stemmed filaree,
Succulent lupine [Arroyo Lupine] ?, Sugar bush, Terracina Spurge, Weedy
oxalis, White nightshade, Wild sweet pea, Wild morning glory, Wild radish,
Wild cucumber, Wishbone plant [Wishbone bush], Woolly paintbrush. – S.L. Dickey. |
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Cold Creek Preserve |
Stunt High Trail |
Dates: 2/15, 18, & 22 |
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Greetings flower lovers! It's a great time to explore the local
creeks and waterfalls before the outburst of spring foliage makes them nearly
impassable. I'm guessing that the Cold
Creek Valley Preserve, (located below Stunt Road) is one of the few places in
the Agoura / Calabasas area which is always open to the public and where you
can see a nice display of ferns along the creek bed. (Note Cold Creek Preserve -- above Stunt
Road -- is open to the public during docent tours and by reservation.) Here's what I saw about 10 days ago: Blue
dicks, Buck brush, California peony, California everlasting, California
polypody, California buckwheat, California Maiden-hair fern, Chalk
live-forever, Chaparral currant, Cliff aster, Coastal wood-fern [California
wood fern], Coffee fern, Greenbark ceanothus, Lupines (Arroyo ?), Milkmaids,
Miner's lettuce, Periwinkle, Prickly phlox, Purple nightshade, Red-stemmed
filaree, Sugar bush, Tree tobacco, Wild cucumber. – S.L. Dickey. |
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Backbone Trail |
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Date:
2/14 |
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Today’s hike is the fourth of
the NPS sponsored Backbone Trail hikes in the 2008 – 2009 series. We
will be hiking west to east, one section of the Backbone Trail each month.
The weather was partly cloudy and cool. We started our hike where the
Backbone Trail crosses Encinal Canyon Road. We hiked the trail to the west
(really pretty much a northerly direction for this section), crossing
Mulholland Highway within 1.2 miles and continuing another 2.6 miles to the
Etz Meloy Motorway. This section of trail is entirely on NPS property and the
property ends about a half mile up the Etz Meloy Motorway, at which point we
have to turn around because NPS has not yet acquired the necessary property
to continue. The trail was moist from recent rains and views from the top
were spectacular, enhanced by snow topped mountains to the north and east. Most of the flower activity was just
beginning. There were some left-over Chaparral Current, Wild Cucumber and Big
Pod Ceanothus. Last year we had a second bloom of the Big Pod and I expect
that will happen this year as well. We had to check the veins in the leaves
to be sure the purple flowering Ceanothus was the Greenbark species. Mule
Fat, California Everlasting, Two-Tone Everlasting, Deerweed, Wishbone Bush,
Tree Tobacco and Morning Glory were scattered along the trail. Counting the
“weeds’ like Black Mustard we counted 19 species in bloom. The
section of trail above Mulholland was constructed fairly recently and many of
the flowers that like disturbed soil are beginning to appear. We saw a single
Parry’s Phacelia and young Bleeding Heart plants. Young Cliff Asters
are wide spread. We had two sunflower examples close enough to compare
differences between the Slim Sunflower and Canyon Sunflower. A couple California Fuschia, covered with
newly forming galls looked very strange.
Rating: poor. – B.
Elliott & R. Waycott |
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Rocky Oaks |
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Date: 2/1 |
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Blooms are only fair here now, but many
plants are in bud. This small site is worth seeing now and returning again to
watch the progress of the blooming season. We saw a few big berry Manzanita
with blooms going to berries, lots of red berries on the toyon. In the pond
were coots and ducks (shovelers). Tree frogs were
croaking. Many different types of lichen are visible. The only masses of blooms were on the
three species of white flowered ceanothus just about everywhere. It’s
worth going to practice your identification skills on the ceanothus. All their white flowers are similar. Big
pod ceanothus (megacarpus) has alternate leaves. Hoary-leaved ceanothus
(crassifolius) and buck-brush ceanothus (cuneatus) both have opposite leaves.
Both have thicker leaves then big pod. Both have corky stipules near the leaf
stems. Hoary-leaved has rounder leaves with occasional jagged teeth. These
leaves are very white (hoary) wooly on the underside. Buck-brush (cuneatus)
has wedge-shaped (cuneate) leaves with the narrow
part near the stem. Buck-brush can also be finely wooly on the underside. Trails on the western side of the
site have more flowers. – S. Braden & J. Gillooly |
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Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area 401 West
Hillcrest Drive 805-370-2301 |
If you
would like to contribute to the wildflower report: e-mail: or phone
Tony at 310-457-6408 |
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