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Page Revised: 3/26/06 |
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Available Sites Malibu Creek State Park |
Date of Review 3/23/06. |
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What's Blooming photo gallery: www.nps.gov/samo/bloom/bloom.htm |
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Malibu Creek State Park |
Reagan Meadows |
Date: 3/23/06 |
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This is a lovely hike and one where
you are not likely to encounter many other people. Park in the gravel lot at the southeast
corner of Mulholland and Cornell and walk up the paved driveway to the park buildings. Beyond the buildings the trail is
obvious. Soon the trail forks and you
can choose the left and the meadow first or right and the woods, you can loop
back the other way. Either choice is
perfumed with the scent of ceanothus.
I took the meadow trail first.
There are brambles of golden current and little yellow violets peeping
out at the edge of the trail. There is
common fiddleneck, miner's lettuce, chaparral current, and, of course the
ceanothus. Curving uphill to the right
at the end of the meadow you can return through the woods. Here you find western wallflower, baby blue
eyes, fiesta flower, larkspur and Chinese houses. (DS) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Topanga State Park |
Dead Horse & Musch trails |
Date: 3/22/06 |
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Dead Horse Trail to Musch trail and
return to Dead Horse on the fire road. The recent rains are paying off in
flowers. Things are really starting to
bloom. The Dead Horse Trail is
riparian at the beginning and then goes to chaparral. In the riparian area there is blooming
chamise, greenbark ceanothus, canyon sunflower, hummingbird sage and
manzanita. Above the footbridge there
are several dozen peonies in bloom, they must have waited for the rain. In the chaparral area there are fuchsia flowering
gooseberry and vervain. In the meadow
before the trail meets the Musch Trail there are buttercups and blue eyed
grass. Going up the Musch Trail there
is sticky monkey flower, purple nightshade, California buckwheat, California
everlasting, wild morning glory and golden yarrow. The most notable plant in bloom is notable
penstemon which is just gorgeous and there is quite a bit of it. There are also some lovely tree poppies. Coming down the fire road to the Trippet
Ranch parking lot there are still some prickly phlox hanging on. (DS) |
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Naturalist's rating: Good |
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Circle X Ranch |
Canyon View Trail |
Date: 3/17/06 |
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Still very few flowers making an
appearance, both in terms of quantity and variety. One of the few plants that
are having a good blooming season this year are the ceanothus. I was debating
giving this trail a poor rating, but the fine display of greenbark ceanothus
easily bumped it up to a fair rating (as a side note, we are still getting a
great displays of the similar, but deeper blue, hairy-leaved ceanothus on the
higher elevations at CXR.) Other highlights include, deerweed, California
buckwheat, popcorn flower, wild cucumber, chamise, purple nightshade, blue
larkspur, wishbone bush, common fiddleneck, shooting star, mustard evening
primrose, wooly blue curls, annual paintbrush, golden yarrow, bush monkey
flower, canyon sunflower, wild morning glory, blue dick, and California
blackberry. (TV). |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Cold Creek Preserve |
Stunt High Trail |
Date: 3/16/06 |
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This canyon is a wonderful hike in
any season but especially nice in the spring.
The creek is full of water and the deep shade of the canyon bottom is
refreshing. Right at the trail head is
some mustard evening primrose. There
are a lot of deep blue ceanothus throughout the canyon. By the creek there are purple nightshade,
California everlasting, wild cucumbers, miner's lettuce, milkmaids and
fuchsia flowering gooseberry. There
are bunches of baby blue eyes in every sunlit patch. Going up the hill into the meadow
there are golden yarrow, lupine, popcorn flower, common fiddleneck, sweet
peas, fiesta flowers, blue dicks and blue eyed grass. Continuing into the chaparral there
is Eastwood manzanita and the beautiful flowering ash trees dripping with
creamy yellow blossoms. (DS) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Circle X Ranch |
Grotto Trail |
Date: 3/13/06 |
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Highlights include deerweed,
California buckwheat, popcorn flower, bush sunflower, canyon sunflower, two-tone
everlasting, California everlasting, greenbark ceanothus, morning glory,
purple nightshade, blue larkspur, chinese houses, wild cucumber, chamise,
bush monkey flower, wishbone bush, fuchsia flowered gooseberry. About three
dozen different species encountered but for most a very light turnout. The
great display of greenbark ceanothus helps bump the rating up to
"fair." (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Solstice Canyon |
Sostomo trail |
Date: 3/7/06 |
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This beautiful canyon with a year
round creek is always a good place for a hike. We took the Sostomo Trail and added the
Deer Canyon loop and didn't encounter another person for the entire hike. We did see Sara Orange tip and California
Sister butterflies. There were
blackberries, California everlasting, morning glory, canyon sunflower and
purple and white nightshade in bloom.
There were beautiful patches of hummingbird sage which each seemed to
have a hummingbird in attendance. The
greenbark and big pod ceanothus are both in bloom. There was parry's phacelia, fuchsia
flowering gooseberry and wishbone flower in bloom. Sitting by the creek we saw newts. On the way back we were serenaded by
frogs. (DS) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Circle X Ranch |
Mishe Mokwa Loop Trail |
Date: 3/6/06 |
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We are still seeing mostly light
turnouts of many flowers, the notable exception being the several species of ceanothus
which have all had a banner year. Highlights include bigpod, greenbark,
hairy-leaved, and hoary-leaved ceanothus, California buckwheat, deerweed,
two-tone everlasting, popcorn flower, morning glory, wild cucumber, a good
number of prickly phlox, golden yarrow, the largely finished chaparral
current, eastwood manzanita, shooting stars, purple nightshade, yellow cress,
miner's lettuce, milkmaids, hillside gooseberry, California peony, and blue
larkspur. I am frequently told by people that they
particularly enjoy seeing the greenbark ceanothus blooming on this trail. In
fact there is very little greenbark ceanothus on the Mishi Mokwa loop trail.
The confusion arises because the much more plentiful hairy-leaved ceanothus
can also have green bark and blue flowers.
(TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Cheeseboro/Palo Comado
Canyons |
Palo Comado Cyn
Trail & a portion of China Flat Trail |
Date: 2/23/06 |
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A good portion of this trip was a quick
survey done in a vehicle so this list must be considered incomplete (for
example, a hike of the same area a few weeks earlier netted over twice as
many species in bloom.) Ignoring the common weedy species the highlights
included fiddleneck, Parry's phacelia, Indian paintbrush, woolly blue curls,
purple nightshade, popcorn flower, wild cucumber, bigpod ceanothus, greenbark
ceanothus, deerweed, two-tone everlasting, canyon sunflower, prickly phlox,
stinging lupine, bajada lupine, chia, mustard evening primrose, sun-cup,
wishbone bush, golden yarrow, yellow pincushion, peony, star lily, California
poppy, windmill pink, morning glory, twining snapdragon, white snapdragon,
blue toadflax, yellow monkey flower, Brewer's red maids, eucrypta, and
miner's lettuce. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Santa
Monica Mountains National Recreation Area 401 West
Hillcrest Drive 805-370-2301 |
Thank
you for your
contributions: Burt
Elliot Ralph Waycott |
If you
would like to contribute to the wildflower report: e-mail: or phone
Tony at 310-457-6408 |
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