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Page Revised: 04/01/2011 |
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Available Site Reviews Circle X Ranch Upper Zuma/Trancas
Canyons Topanga Canyon State Park Corral Canyon Zuma/Trancas Canyons |
Date of Reviews 03/30 & 03/19 &
02/22 & 02/12. 03/12 & 02/26. 03/02. 02/26. 02/21 & 02/06. |
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Quick Links: Wildflowers
of the Santa Monica Mountains - Photos of over 800 species. Archive - Previous “What's Blooming” reports. Outdoors - The
Calendar of Events for the Santa Monica Mountains NRA. Wildfowers
Facebook - A place where people can share about flowers. SMM WildFlowers - The Park's popular wildflower app for the iPhone/iPad. |
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We had a great start this year with
many of our winter flowers appearing as early as December. The warm, dry
weather we had early in the season made for pleasant hiking but appears to
have shortened the season for some of our early flowers. I can’t
remember a shorter Bigpod Ceanothus bloom up here at Circle X Ranch. In
addition, that extended dry spell was hard on a lot of the plants. Many of
the typical annual species are pretty scarce. Hopefully the rains have not
returned too late and will keep the flower season alive. The hairy-leaved
ceanothus with the deep blue flowers are mostly done unless you go to the
higher elevations. There were still quite a few last weekend up near
Sandstone Peak. Things are very lush right now so hopefully the annuals can
bounce back. I notice that some of the plants that had pretty much dried up
and gone to seed are flowering again. 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. |
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Circle X Ranch |
Grotto Trail |
Date: 03/30/2011 |
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While there is a
rather good selection of flowers nothing seems to be dominating this year. In
particular the annuals seem to be rather sparse. All the regulars can be
found but you have to work at it this year to find some of them. Things to
watch for on this trail include three different kinds of monkey flower,
masses of lush deerweed, California buckwheat, both
bush and canyon sunflowers, chia, both of the
common vetches, some early black sage, greenback ceanothus,
several members of the carrot family with their tiny yellow flowers, purple nightshade,
Chinese houses, blue larkspur, California saxifrage, a couple of our dainty
native mustards, blue-eyed grass, blue dicks, a few early chamise,
golden yarrow, morning glory, one star lily but a lot of nearby rosettes,
wishbone bush looking way better than it did a month ago, Parry’s phacelia, popcorn flowers, a couple of different
everlastings, oxalis, virgin’s bower and one chocolate lily. At fifty
different species in bloom it was a decent variety even if the flowers are a
bit sparse. – ed. |
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Circle X Ranch |
Sandstone Peak Trail |
Date: 03/19/2011 |
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Though some blooms
were profuse, others are just getting started or still unseen, for this time
of year. There was lots of Deerweed and California
buckwheat early on, with more showy Prickly phlox among 3 species of
Ceanothus: Hoary-leaved (white), Greenbark (pale
blue), and Hairy-leaved (dark blue). It was quite a show in the
“Ceanothus Tunnel,” just before the Sandstone Peak spur trail,
but overall species were quite low (just 10). Give it a few more weeks and
some extra rain, hopefully it’ll all come out at once. –
Jack Gillooly |
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Zuma/Trancas Canyons |
Backbone Trail |
Date: 03/12/2011 |
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Today’s hike
was the fifth 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. Descending
into Trancas Canyon through dense riparian cover and ascending to Zuma ridge
we did the same through upper Zuma and Newton canyons. The following
native species were noted in bloom: Big pod ceanothus, wild cucumber,
deerweed, fuchsia gooseberry, yarrow, purple nightshade, greenbark ceanothus,
milkmaids, coastal live oak, bindweed - morning glory, wishbone, black sage,
Parry's Phacelia, California buckwheat, mustard evening primrose, sugarbush, sticky monkey flower, dandelion, tone-tone
everlasting, California poppy, chamise, mountain mahagony,
Indian warrior, lomatium, wooley blue curls,
fiddleneck, tall popcorn flower, elderberry, blue dicks, truncated lupin, meadow rue, interior live oak, canyon sunflower,
hollyleaf redberry, peony, prickly pholox,
chaparral currant, arroyo willow, blue larkspur, hoary leaf ceanothus, cliff
aster(?), prickly sow thistle, bush lupine, annual or common bedstraw, mule
fat, sweet pea, chaparral virgin's bower, hedge nettle, saxifrage, lacepod, narrow leaf bedstraw, figwort, arroyo lupin, Indian paintbrush, hummingbird sage, tree poppy,
blue eyed grass, groundsel, poison oak, slender sunflower, bush sunflower,
California everlasting, bay laurel, sticky phacelia. A good flower day. – N.
Cusworth (and others) |
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Topanga Canyon State Park |
Topanga Canyon nature trail |
Date: 03/02/2011 |
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I was here early
on an overcast day. Perhaps that is
why this hike seemed to be more about the fauna than the flora. I stopped counting after seeing more than
twenty deer. I also saw a pocket
gopher, mallards, towhees and ground squirrels. The hills hold a lot of promise for great
flowers but the display is just beginning.
There are white and blue ceanothus, bush lupine, chaparral current,
wishbone flower, sticky monkey flower, wild cucumber, wild morning glory and
fuchsia flowering gooseberry in bloom.
It looks like it will be a great flower season. – Dorothy Steinicke |
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Upper Zuma/Trancas Canyons |
Backbone Trail |
Date: 02/26/2011 |
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Today’s
hikes were the third and fourth legs 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 normally covering one segment every two weeks. Because today's segments
are so short, we hiked one segment in the morning, drove to another
trailhead, had lunch, and then hiked the second segment, for a total of
almost 12 miles. Today's first leg began at Mishe Mokwa Parking in Circle X
Ranch, circumnavigated Triunfo Peak and ended at Yerba Buena Road. The second
leg began at the crossing of Encinal Canyon Road in Upper Trancas Canyon and
headed west to an overlook above the Etz Meloy Motorway, and return on the
same trail. Private property along the Etz Meloy Motorway precludes using
that road. The plant communities along this hike varied between Southern Oak
Woodland and Chaparral, with occasions of Cliffside communities. The following
species, including NATIVE and non-native, were noted in bloom in order of
occurrence: Blue Dicks, Black Sage, a Woolly Blue-curl, Deerweed, filaree, chamise, Minute-flowered Popcorn Flower,
Golden Yarrow, Shooting Stars beside a waterfall, Black Mustard, Wild Cucumber,
Hairy-leaf Ceanothus, Purple Nightshade, Two-tone Everlasting, Sugar Bush,
Canyon Sunflower, Greenbark Ceanothus, Miner's Lettuce, Chaparral Currant,
Shiny Lomatium, Bigpod Ceanothus, Hedge-nettle, Eastwood Manzanita, Prickly
Phlox, California Buckwheat, Wild Morning Glory, Mountain Mahogany,
California Everlasting, Holly-leaf Redberry, Wishbone Bush, Fuchsia-flowered
Gooseberry, Parry's Phacelia, Prickly Phlox, Rock Rose, Chamise, Mule Fat,
Elderberry, Bush Monkey Flower, Popcorn Flower, common groundsel, prickly sow
thistle, tree tobacco, Common Fiddleneck, terracina spurge. – Burt Elliot and Ralph Waycott |
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Corral Canyon |
Sara Wan Trailhead |
Date: 02/26/2011 |
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Today was the
first time I walked this trail. The
entrance is just south of Corral Canyon Rd. and has a parking lot adjacent to
Malibu Seafood. There is a creek
crossing just after leaving the parking lot.
I imagine that one can normally cross easily. Today, a day after a heavy rain the creek
was very full and we got our feet wet.
The trail is a 2 1/2 mile loop with some spectacular views of the
ocean and down into the creek bed.
Once away from the creek, and the trail leaves the creek as soon as it
is crossed, the habitat is almost entirely chaparral. So I imagine it would not be a pleasant
hike on a hot sunny day. But this was
a perfect day. There was not a
tremendous quantity or variety of flowers in bloom. There were some glorious patches of
caterpillar phacelia and a lot of bush sunflowers. There were wishbone flowers, Indian
paintbrush, purple nightshade, wild morning glory, blue dicks, vervain, wild
cucumber, California everlasting and hedge nettle. The only less common flower was Southern
California loco weed which was in bloom in places and with the inflated seed
pods in other places. – Dorothy Steinicke |
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Circle X Ranch |
Canyon View Trail |
Date: 02/22/2011 |
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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. |
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Zuma/Trancas Canyons |
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Date: 02/21/2011 |
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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 |
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Circle X Ranch – Point Mugu State Park |
Backbone Trail |
Date: 02/12/2011 |
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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) |
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Zuma/Trancas Canyons |
Zuma Loop Trail |
Date: 02/06/2011 |
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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 |
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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 you can e-mail the
editor at: or phone
Tony at 310-457-6408 |
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What’s Blooming on the web at www.researchlearningcenter.com/bloom or go to www.nps.gov/samo and click on
“What’s Blooming”
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