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Page Revised: 4/27/07 |
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Available Sites Cheeseboro & Palo Comado Cyns Zuma & Trancas Canyons Circle X Ranch Rancho Sierra Vista Triunfo Canyon Park Leo Carrillo State Park Rancho Sierra Vista Point Mugu State Park Malibu Creek State Park |
Date of Review 4/26. 4/24. 4/23 & 4/16 & 4/14
& 4/9 & 3/24. 4/15. 4/12. 4/4. 3/25. 3/23. 3/14. |
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What's Blooming photo gallery: http://www.researchlearningcenter.com/bloom/bloom.htm |
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Cheeseboro & Palo Comado Canyons |
Sheep Corral Trail |
Date: 4/26/07 |
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This trail runs through the burn area
and looked quite good in the otherwise mediocre flower showing we had last
year. This year has been too dry and
consequently not much is blooming. The wild morning glory is doing well, but
other than that even the weeds seem to be struggling. I only encountered
about 20 species in bloom and most of those had a very light showing. We did see the dried-up skeletons of some
the seasons earlier flowers, but even these remains were few and far between.
Highlights (such as they were) included a few wooley blue curls, some bush
monkey flower, a few bush sunflowers, popcorn flower, a few blue dicks, some
purple nightshade, a couple of caterpillar phacelia, some yellow pincushion,
yerba santa, wishbone bush, and a few mustard evening primrose. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Zuma and Trancas
Canyons |
The Backbone Trail |
Date: 4/24/07 |
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With the recent warm weather, the
Backbone Trail (from Kanan Rd. west to Zuma Ridge Trail) is finally blooming. Nothing spectacular, but enough variety to
be worth a look. Some of the 70
or so species encountered were: blue larkspur, fiesta flower, holly-leaved
redberry, Califonria bee plant, caterpillar phacelia, verbena, bush lupine,
redbud, wild pea, woodland star, milk maids, blue-eyed grass, blackberry,
sticky cinquefoil, meadow rue, star lily, Parry's phacelia, California
mustard, plus 3 kinds of ceanothus, at least 2 popcorn flowers, 3 kinds of
bedstraw (including the unusual Gallium andrewsii, or pine mat), and last,
but not least, California poppy. (JS) |
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Naturalist's rating: Good (for this
year) |
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Circle X Ranch |
Canyon View Trail |
Date: 4/23/07 |
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This trail is usually one of the
better ones to do for flower hikes, but not this year. It's been too dry and consequently many of
the annual species never even bothered to germinate. We stared our hike at the little park
office on Yerba Buena and walked down to the campgrounds and then part way
down the grotto trail. We also did
what I call "flower alley," a short section of the grotto trail
from the first waterfall to the point where the trail begins to climb
again. While there was little to be
seen even here, we did encounter a decent showing of Chinese houses, a
hollyleaf cherry, some blue larkspur, and a few fiesta flowers. Continuing up
the Canyon View trail the chaparral was quite dry with very few flowers to
look at. At the Sandstone Peak trailhead we walked back down the road to the
park office. As it turned out we saw
several nice flowers along the shoulders of Yerba Buena as well (like the Parry's
phacelia and a few different species of lupines.) Highlights (such as they were) included:
deerweed, wild morning glory, elderberry, sugarbush, greenbark ceanothus,
canyon sunflower, bush sunflower, poison oak, virgin's bower, caterpillar
phacelia, purple nightshade, popcorn flower, blue dicks, a few leftover
wishbone bush, bush monkey flower, yellow monkey flower, creek monkey flower,
wooley blue curls, purple clarkia, a couple of lupines, chamese, and a couple
chia. All told, including the walk
along the road, we saw over sixty different species of flower in bloom. However, most of these flowers were seen
only in very low numbers and consequently I've rated the trail as
"poor." (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Circle X Ranch |
Ceanothus update |
Date: 4/16/07 |
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Just a very quick update for the ceanothus
lovers in the crowd. The ceanothus
season is winding down. You can still find individuals blooming, especially
in sheltered environments, but the big displays are over for the year. Overall the flower season this year remains
poor compared to other years we’ve had recently. (TV) |
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Rancho Sierra Vista /
Satwiwa |
Native plant garden |
Date: 4/15/07 |
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Few wildflowers are blooming
throughout the mountains because of our apparent drought, but for a short wildflower
walk, consider the native plant garden at Rancho Sierra Vista when you visit
the Satwiwa Native American Center or hike another trail in the area. True,
the garden does get water, but it has lots of blooms of bladderpod, vervain,
black sage, golden currant, monkey flower and purple nightshade. The prickly
pear cactus has lots of red fruits and the native onions are flowering. The
walk is short, but the flower rating is very good. (SB) |
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Naturalist's rating: Very Good |
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Circle X Ranch |
Triunfo Backbone Trail |
Date: 4/14/07 |
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This past weekend the NPS sponsored
hike of the backbone trail did the section at Circle X Ranch between the Sandstone
Peak trailhead and the trailhead at about mile marker 9 on Yerba Buena
Road. This four mile section is one of
the newest but is finally getting old enough that some of the pioneering
species like the phacelias, bleeding hearts and fire poppies are no longer
quite so profuse. This trail is
especially good for views of the ocean since so much of it is on high, steep,
South facing hillsides. Although we
did not do the side trail up to Triunfo Peak, that would normally be on my
itinerary for this hike. The view on top of Triunfo is almost as good as from
Sandstone Peak. We had a very large group this time
with over thirty participants. Many of
us were quite interested in flowers so we stopped often and discussed the
flowers we encountered. We also had a
couple of geologists along and enjoyed hearing about the physical
landscape. It was a perfect day and
even the shortage of flowers didn’t dampen people’s spirits. The quantities of flowers were quite low
due to the very dry conditions. Interestingly
enough, we are still seeing reasonably typical species counts, rather, it is
the number of individuals of any given species that is often very low. We encountered almost seventy different
species in bloom which is close to the about ninety or so I might expect to
see on this trail. Highlights include
ceanothus, purple nightshade, star lily, fuchsia flowered gooseberry, wild
cucumber, bush monkey flower, blue dicks, wild morning glory, popcorn flower,
Parry’s phacelia, mustard evening primrose, bush lupine, wishbone bush,
rock rose, sunflowers, woolly blue curls, prickly phlox, hedge nettle,
chinese houses, blue larkspur, small-flowered meconella, fiesta flower,
yellow pincushion, red-skinned onion, purple clarkia, and deerweed. You should keep in mind that many of the
flowers I’ve listed here were present only in very low numbers. It would be easy to hike this tail and miss
seeing many of them unless you were keeping a careful watch. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Mostly Poor with some Fair sections |
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Triunfo Canyon Park |
Southwest end near the Reservoir |
Date: 4/12/07 |
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We didn’t have time to hike the
Pentachaeta Trail on this outing but did a quick loop up to the Las Virgenes
Reservoir and back. While everything
looks unusually dry we did see some nice flowers. The highlight is always
seeing the endangered Lyon’s pentachaeta and we were not disappointed
as we ran into a number of small populations on the social trails leading up
to the reservoir. We also encountered
California poppy, chaparral flowering ash, blue eyed grass, blue dicks,
ground pink, good numbers of the small white linanthus, a few golden yarrow, wild cucumber, woolly
blue curls, popcorn flowers, a couple of owl clover, fuchsia-flowered
gooseberry, Johnny jump-up, the delightful cream cups, some lupine, fiesta
flower, purple clarkia, and coast goldfields.
All told about forty species in bloom.
By the way, I’ve heard that the pentachaeta trail is doing OK
this year too. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Good |
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Circle X Ranch |
Mishe Mokwa Loop |
Date: 4/9/07 |
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We did the loop clockwise on April 7,
(going to Sandstone Peak before Split Rock).
I had low flower expectations on this hike. I did it a month ago and there wasn't much
in bloom and there hasn't been any rain since. To my surprise things are blooming quite
nicely. Some things, larkspur and
saxifrage, actually seem to be doing better than in average years. At the Sandstone Peak trailhead there
is lots of blooming deerweed. It
accompanies you up the steep climb along with some black sage and California
everlasting. As you get closer to the
peak there is a lot of prickly phlox and hoary leaf ceanothus along with
popcorn flower, blue dick, purple nightshade, sticky monkey flower, wild
cucumber, shiny lomatium, chaparral current and Eastwood manzanita. From Sandstone Peak to Split Rock the
padres shooting stars have finished blooming (and a month ago they hadn't even
put up stems) there is some owl's clover, collarless poppies, larkspur,
goldfields and common fiddleneck. Climbing up from Split Rock flowers
seem to be in their own distinct patches.
First there is a small gathering of milkmaids, then saxifrage, then
mountain phacelia. Then you come on
the beautiful view of a red rock mountainside covered in the lovely blue
hairy leaf ceanothus with cream colored virgin's bower spilling over the top
of it. In this area the trail and
surrounding stones are all dusted with a layer of tiny blue flowers. Back at the top there are some parry's
phacelia, mustard evening primrose and woolly blue curls. No chocolate lilies yet. (DS) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Circle X Ranch |
Grotto Trail |
Date:
4/8/07 |
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Heading out from the group campsite
there are common fiddleneck, greenbark ceanothus, wild cucumber, purple
nightshade, California everlasting, big pod ceanothus and black sage. There is no water at all in the first
stream crossing and the second crossing is low. However patient observation showed that
there are newts in the water. A good
sign. Up the hill to the meadow there is
incredibly vivid and plentiful larkspur, Chinese houses, fiesta flowers,
popcorn flower, and star lily. In the meadow there is blue eyed
grass and vetch in great abundance.
Also wild morning glory, sticky monkey flower and blue dicks. Heading down to the grotto there are
wishbone flower, mustard evening primrose, deerweed, virgin's bower, canyon
sunflower and mountain mahogany. It seems that this dry year has been
favorable to star lilies, there are more than I recall from past years. The January freeze did dramatic
damage to many of the laurel sumac who now stand out with their dead orange
leaves. But a closer examination shows
a profusion of new sprouts bursting out of their branches much like oaks
after a fire. (DS) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Leo Carrillo State Park |
Willow Creek and Nicholas Flat Trails |
Date: 4/4/07 |
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From the trailhead near the entrance
station to Leo Carrillo State Park, we took the Willow Creek Trail to the right
and hiked up to the junction with the Nicholas Flat Trail and back down that
trail, making it a 3mile loop. It was Spring Break and the campground was
full. We passed several hikers on the trail. The highpoint of the hike literally
and also from a flower sighting standpoint was near the trail junction. We
saw a couple groupings of fresh Scarlet Buglers, not a very common sight in
these mountains. In terms of quantity of flowers, the Wishbone Bush, Indian
Paintbrush, Minute Popcorn Flower, Blue Dick, Red-Stem Filaree and both the
California and Two-Tone Everlastings were most obvious. Tiny flowered Spurge
always like the type of decomposing shale soil found here. Not far from the
start of the Willow Creek Trail, on the south side, is a beautiful, large
Bladder Pod dripping with pods and flowers. The expected Deerweed, Santa
Barbara Locoweed, Popcorn Flower, Black Mustard, Morning Glory, Narrow-Leaved
Bedstraw, Wild Sweet Pea, Yellow Sweet Clover and Sunflower were evident, but
in smaller quantities than usual in a normal rain year. We saw a few blooming
Greenbark Ceanothus and Lemonade Berry, and a few Mustard Evening Primrose
among some Parry’s Phacelia and California Poppies. Near the entrance
to the campground we saw Wild Elderberry and Mule Fat flowering. (BE) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Rancho Sierra Vista |
Satwiwa Loop Trail |
Date: 3/25/07 |
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On March 25th, we hiked the Satwiwa
loop at Rancho Sierra Vista. Both
ponds were dried up! Flowers that were
present were small in number. The
highlight was seeing Padre's shooting
stars. Peony had just finished. My list: morning glory, California
everlasting, California poppy, fiddleneck, wild cucumber, ceanothus, wild
radish, black mustard, blue dick, slender tarweed, filaree, locoweed, vetch,
and purple nightshade. (KJ) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Circle X Ranch |
Sandstone Peak Trail |
Date: 3/24/07 |
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This trail is usually not the best around
for flowers but in compensation more than makes up for it by taking you to
the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains. The views are unobstructed and on a clear
day you can easily see San Clemente seventy miles out to sea or the snow on
Old Baldy eighty mile to the East. The ceanothus is the flowering shrub to
see right now. While the bigpod
ceanothus is winding down there are still many individuals dotting the
landscape with their whitish to purplish blossoms. For me the prize is the
hairy-leaved ceanothus with its tight purple clusters of many small blossoms.
It is easy to see why some people call this shrub the “chaparral
lilac.” As you climb higher
toward the peak the bigpod and hairy-leaved give way to the whiter
hoary-leaved ceanothus which is also beginning to bloom nicely on this
trail. The other flowers worth noting
are prickly phlox, wild cucumber, deerweed, chaparral current, purple
nightshade and Eastwood manzanita.
Otherwise we saw very few flowers, both in terms of variety and quantity. All told only a little over two dozen
different flower species were seen in bloom.
(TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Good |
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Point Mugu State Park |
La Jolla Canyon |
Date: 3/23/07 |
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From Ray Miller Trailhead - La Jolla Canyon
trail through La Jolla Valley and return via the Backbone trail. The Giant Coreopsis in La Jolla Canyon are
almost in full bloom. Most plants had
3/4's of their buds open. Another week
and they should be at their peak. We
also saw copious amounts of Blue Dick and Indian Paintbrush throughout the
hike. Other flowers in bloom were:
Scarlet Pimpernel, Fuchsia Flowered Gooseberry, Shooting Stars, Red Stem
Filaree, Turkish Rugging, Parry's Phacelia, Fiesta Flower, Wild Cucumber,
Purple Nightshade, Lemonade Berry, Buckwheat, Everlasting, Morning Glory,
Hedge Nettle, Greenbark Ceanothus, Buck-Brush, Blue Eyed Grass, Tree Tobacco,
Bladder Pod, California Poppy, Collarless California Poppy, Coast Wallflower,
Mustard, Deerweed, Santa Barbara Locoweed, Bush Sunflower and Chaparral
Currant. At Thornhill-Broome Beach
across Hwy 1 from the trailhead we observed Pink Sand Verbena. (R&AT) |
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Naturalist's rating: Good |
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Malibu Creek State Park |
Phantom Trail |
Date: 3/14/07 |
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I was on the Phantom Trail (northern
Malibu Creek SP, north of Mulholland) earlier this week (Wednesday, to be
specific), and I saw a lot of Indian Paintbrush in bloom. Not certain of the exact species, but it is
bright cardinal in color, one in which the style extrudes itself out of the
flower tube. There are also California
poppies coming out on the ridge, as well as a fair amount of ceanothus in
bloom, and not big-pod, either, in both white and 'blue'. Naturally, poison oak is beginning to put
out buds in many areas. I also saw
willow in bloom, but can't remember exactly where - been all over, trying to
get out a lot before the weather gets too hot - just that it wasn't on the
Phantom Trail, of course. I also saw a
few very small, deep purple-with-a-hint-of-red flowers that had a vague
resemblance to native geraniums (not the horticultural ones) on the southern
Phantom Trail ridge. A "belly
flower" that require getting on your stomach to really see, (JC) |
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Naturalist's rating: NR |
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Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area 401 West
Hillcrest Drive 805-370-2301 |
Thank
you for your
contributions: Bob Sweet |
If you
would like to contribute to the wildflower report: e-mail: or phone
Tony at 310-457-6408 |
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