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Page Revised: 5/28/07 |
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Available Sites Circle X Ranch Point Mugu State Park Topanga State Park Cheeseboro & Palo Comado Cyns Zuma & Trancas Canyons Rancho Sierra Vista Triunfo Canyon Park Leo Carrillo State Park |
Date of Review 5/17 & 5/14 & 4/16
& 4/14. 5/12. 5/5. 4/26. 4/24. 4/15. 4/12. 4/4. |
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What's Blooming photo gallery: http://www.researchlearningcenter.com/bloom/bloom.htm |
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Circle X Ranch |
Mishe Mokwa Loop |
Date: 5/17/07 |
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We hiked the Mishe Mokwa loop, but
because we then dropped down onto the Canyon View Trail we did not do the 0.2
mile connector section. The Canyon
View trail, which we also did, is hardly worth mentioning as it is almost
devoid of flowers. As we’ve
noted elsewhere the species counts are almost as high as in less dry years
but the quantity of individuals is way down. In another year this showing would probably
rate as fair to poor, but this year we might be a bit more generous and bump
it up to fair to good. Some specific
sections of this six-mile trail were quite nice with good showings of
clarkias. The total species count was
over seventy different flowers.
Highlights included sapphire wool stars, linanthus, deerweed, yucca,
buckwheat, Turkish rugging, golden yarrow, quite a bit of black sage, some
popcorn flowers, woolly blue curls, bird’s beak, the diminutive
small-flowered dwarf flax, golden stars, quite a bit of bush monkey flower,
yellow monkey flower, four different phacelias, some faded blue dicks, one
Fish’s milkwort, a few early heart-leaved penstemon, canyon sunflower,
some early pitcher sage, Chinese houses, blue larkspur, two different mostly
withered onions, sticky cinquefoil, a bush lupine, one star lily hiding under
a chamise bush, and a few coast goldfield.
(TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair to Good (for
this year) |
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Circle X Ranch |
Grotto Trail |
Date: 5/14/07 |
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Grotto plants in flower: black sage, mountain
phacelia, crimson pitcher sage , large-flowered phacelia, sugar bush, sticky
monkey flower, California everlasting, canyon sunflower, rose, chamise,
golden yarrow, California buckwheat, morning glory, elegant clarkia, creek
monkey flower, caterpillar phacelia, lance-leaved dudleya, purple nightshade,
Chinese houses, mini-flowered popcorn, deer weed, heart-leafed penstemon,
woolly blue curls, Santa Catalina mariposa lily, 4 o'clock, blue-eyed grass,
speckled clarkia, crimson pitcher sage, scarlet monkey flower elderberry,
and slender tarweed. (RW) |
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Naturalist's rating: NR |
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Point Mugu State Park
& Circle X Ranch |
The Backbone Trail |
Date: 5/12/07 |
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This is the flower list from the NSP
sponsored hike of the Backbone trail on May 12th. This was segment eight of the series and
ran from the Sandstone Peak trailhead at Circle X Ranch down to the Danielson
multi-use area in Point Mugu State Park:
deerweed, chamise, black sage, golden-yarrow, morning glory, bed
straw, yellow mariposa lily, Santa Catalina mariposa lily, woolly blue-curls,
California everlasting, two-tone everlasting, bush lupine, lance-leaf
live-forever, sticky monkey flower, yellow monkey flower, purple nightshade,
heart-leafed penstemon, speckled clarkia, purple clarkia, elegant clarkia,
willow-herb clarkia, farewell-to-spring, prickly phlox, Chinese houses,
larkspur, yellow pincushion, rose snapdragon, pitcher sage, rock rose,
owl's-clover, popcorn flower, Turkish rugging, annual coreopsis, hedge
nettle, caterpillar phacelia, Indian pink, yucca, tarweed, holly-leafed
cherry, purple sage, squaw spurge, blue-eyed grass, paint brush, golden star
lily, fiesta flower, blackberry, elderberry, rose, greenbark ceanothus,
peninsular onion, cobwebby thistle, lomatium, checkerbloom, crimson pitcher
sage, and mountain phacelia. (RW) |
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Naturalist's rating: NR |
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Circle X Ranch |
Mishe Mokwa Loop |
Date: 5/08/07 |
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We hiked the first half of the Mishe
Mokwa Trail on 5/08/07, only to be turned back before reaching Split Rock
because of the mid ninety temperature. We had hoped to catch a few chocolate
lilies, but found only a few small leaved plants and no blooms. The only
sighting of any special interest was of a pure white Parry's phacelia. This
is the second one of these we have spotted over the last five years. Other
blooms seen were Calif. buckwheat, chamise, black sage and a number of Catalina
Mariposa lilies, the latter being stunted and lacking in color. Also seen
were golden yarrow, wooly blue curl, yucca, deer weed, popcorn flower and
minute flowered popcorn flower. Scarlet pimpernel, a single sand spurry, a
speckled Clarkia and bush monkey flower were also noted. Quite a bit of soft
brome was seen and berries on a golden current and red berries on an Eastwood
manzanita as well. On display was a single common yarrow, Parry's phacelia,
fern leaf phacelia, collarless California poppy, hedge mustard, red brome and
Chia. The live-forever were blooming as were narrow-leaved bedstraw, and
Chinese houses. The seed heads of the silver puff were also present. In all
26 different blooms (including the grasses) were seen and a rating of fair is
assigned. (RWM) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Topanga State Park |
Musch Trail |
Date: 5/5/07 |
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This morning I took the Musch Trail
almost to the Eagle Rock fire road.
Well, if you look closely you find some variety of wildflowers
struggling to make a small show! On
the Musch Trail last week I found Filaree, Hummingbird Sage, California
Buttercups, Wild Hyacinth, Catalina Mariposa Lilies, Sticky Monkey Flower,
Golden Yarrow and Notable Penstemon.
The Elderberry Bushes are flowering and provide a nice backdrop.
Around the Trippet Ranch area there is also Bush Lupine, Bush Sunflower,
Chinese Houses, Fiesta Flowers, Blue Eyed Grass, and Wild Radish. Also, there is some Common Vervain, Purple
Nightshade, a little Black Sage starting to bloom, and a small Hedge Nettle.
The poison oak is getting into the trail at several points so care is needed. I'd say the rating is poor compared to
other years, but fair because at least there is something and, at this point,
more seem to coming out every day.
(LH) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair (for this
year) |
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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 woolly 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, California 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 |
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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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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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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