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Page Revised: 06/03/2011 |
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Available Site Reviews Circle X Ranch Rocky Oaks Cold Creek Canyon Malibu Creek State Park Los Robles Open Space Escondido Canyon Park Rancho Sierra Vista Point Mugu State park Topanga Canyon State Park Paramount Ranch Castro Crest Red Rock Canyon Park Triunfo Canyon Park Los Robles Open Space Wildwood park Oakbrook Regional Park |
Date of Reviews 06/03 & 05/02 & 04/21. 05/31 05/30 & 04/19. 05/28 & 05/18 &
05/15. 05/26. 05/22. 05/21. 05/21. 05/19. 05/19 & 04/29. 05/15 & 04/23. 05/15. 05/10. 05/02. 04/26. 04/19. |
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Quick Links: Wildflowers
of the Santa Monica Mountains - Photos of 850 SMM 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 shortened the season for many of our
flowers. I can’t remember a
shorter ceanothus bloom up here at Circle X Ranch. In addition, that long
early-winter dry spell was very hard on a lot of the plants. Many of the
typical early season annual species were pretty scarce. I’ve heard many comments like
“... but we’ve had so much rain!” I must remind people that
plants are living organisms and as such not very interested in high
“average” quantity, but much more dependent on consistency, and we’ve had very
little of that this year. While many
of the perennials are having a good to excellent year this remains about the
worst year I’ve ever seen for many of the annuals. I was hoping the later season annuals would
look better because the rain was more consistent later on but up to now they
seem to be having a weak year as well.
On the other hand most of annuals can still be found if you are
willing to look, just not in the dramatic eye-popping displays of some of the
recent past. Some of the recent reports indicate that as late as the year has
grown the flower season is far from over. Time might be running out to make
use of the continuing unseasonably cool weather. 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 |
Sandstone Peak / Mishe Mokwa Loop |
Date: 06/03/2011 |
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This was one of
the most spectacular flower walks I've taken this season, which is a surprise because most flowers
are usually done by June. We parked in
the Sandstone Peak Parking lot. From
the trailhead we could see flowering yucca, golden yarrow, deer weed, black
sage and chamise. Heading up the hill
we encountered cliff aster, golden star lilies, woolly blue curls, bush
lupine, sticky monkey flower, popcorn flower, farewell-to-spring, heart leaf
penstemon, Chinese houses and purple nightshade. There was rarely a stretch of trail that wasn't
bordered with banks of flowers. Then
we came upon the star of this hike, lovely yellow mariposas, we counted 65 on
the loop. We encountered someone who said that she does the loop every week
and that there had been none the week before.
Continuing on past Sandstone Peak we saw lance leaf dudleya, virgin's
bower seed pods, blue dicks, purple clarkia, blue larkspur, globe gilia,
owl's clover, yellow pincushion, Turkish rugging and wild morning glory. Another star of the walk was the lovely
white pitcher sage which we started to see on the spur trail up to Sandstone
Peak and then saw intermittently for the rest of the loop. The meadow past Inspiration Point which
hosts shooting stars in February was filled with wild brodiaea. Heading down to Split Rock we saw
cinquefoil. Climbing back up to the
trailhead we passed yellow monkey flower, Parry's phacelia, and a few
Catalina mariposas. The scarlet
larkspur were not out yet but looked like they would be coming soon. – Dorothy Steinicke |
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Scenic drives |
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Date: 05/31/2011 |
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Along Mulholland
Highway everything is lush and green, and there are many things in bloom, not
nearly as spectacular as previous years, but this road is certainly a pleasant
drive through the Santa Monica Mountains from Malibu Canyon all the way to
Pacific Coast Highway. Among the large
shrubs and small trees in bloom are Chamise (white spiky blossoms), Elderberry (creamy white rounded sprays of
blooms), and sage (light purple flower spikes above grey leaves).
You’ll see the tall yucca stalks topped with white flowers all over the
hillsides. Lower to the ground are the
yellowish gold spikes of deerweed bushes, the golden yellow round blooms of
yarrow and the rosy white blooms of California buckwheat. Sheets of gold on steep rocky slopes are
Sticky Monkeyflower. – Sheila
Braden |
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Rocky Oaks |
Misc. Trails |
Date: 05/31/2011 |
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Went for a
walk at Rocky Oaks (Kanan and Mulholland) on 5/31/11. I took the Pond
Trail to the Loop Trail. There is some Notable Penstemon on the pond
trail. I also saw Golden Yarrow, Sticky Monkey Flower, Blue Eyed Grass,
Purple Clarkia, California Buckwheat, Deerweed , Black Sage, Scarlet
Pimpernel, and Chaparral Yucca. Near the end of the loop trail,
there are some California Poppies blooming. – Jim Garafalo |
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Cold Creek Canyon |
Stunt High Trail |
Date: 05/30/2011 |
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From the parking on
Stunt Rd. 1 mile in from Mulholland to the next Stunt Rd. crossing. Right at
the parking area there is an overwhelming array of flowers. Purple sage are the predominant blooms but
there is also flowering yucca, California buckwheat, greenbark ceanothus,
deerweed, golden yarrow and chamise.
Heading down the trail there were great quantities of golden stars
interspersed with blue eyed grass, soap plant lily, morning glory, purple
nightshade, caterpillar phacelia and sticky monkey flower. Once the trail runs alongside the creek
elegant clarkia becomes the predominant flower. It is mixed with canyon sunflower, wild
rose and black sage. Stream orchids
are growing right in the creek and are bigger and more prevalent than I
remember them being in previous years.
Heading up into the chaparral there is lance leaf dudleya, purple
clarkia and farewell-to-spring, there are still blue larkspur blooming as
well as vervain, slender tarweed and woolly blue curls. heart leaf penstemon,
Chinese houses and California live-forever.
At the very top, where the trail again meets Stunt Rd. there is a large patch of scarlet larkspur
mixed with large flower phacelia and cliff asters. – Dorothy Steinicke |
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Malibu Creek State Park |
Lost Cabin Trail |
Date: 05/28/2011 |
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Saturday, May 28,
was day chosen by the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council (SMMTC) to perform maintenance on the Lost Cabin Trail. By
the time I had worked my way in about a mile I was convinced that the
wildflower display rated an excellent, so on the return began to record the
flowers seen. I started with yellow pincushion, yucca, chamise, deerweed,
woolly blue-curls, stone crop, turkish rugging, ca buckwheat, yellow mariposa
lily, foothill lupine, elegant clarkia, yellow star thistle, golden yarrow,
blue larkspur, blue eyed grass, vervain, golden star, Spanish clover,
Catalina mariposa lily, downy navarretia, speckled clarkia, foothill
penstemon, Indian thistle, coffee berry, and red stem filaree. The above
flowers were in considerable quantity.
Less frequent were shiny lomatium, a single white snapdragon, black
sage, ca milkweed a little off the trail,
along with a chaparral honeysuckle. Near the Mash site and along the
Crags Road to the west were collar lupine, poison hemlock, ca poppy,
plantain, curly dock, collarless poppy, elderberry, popcorn flower, scarlet
bugler. – Burt Elliot |
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Los Robles Open Space |
Los Padres Trail |
Date: 05/26/2011 |
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The Los Padres
Trail is off Moorpark Rd. Go under the freeway and turn left on Los
Padres Drive. The trailhead is almost immediately on the
right. The hike starts with a stroll through an oak glen. It
is very pretty. Then you will start a gradual up hill climb. The
climb becomes steeper going up the mountain which makes this a good exercise
hike. There is a lovely view of Conejo Valley on one side and a
peek of Hidden Valley and the expanse of the mountains on the other.
The varying shades of green in the mountains due to our recent rainfall is
picture perfect. Of course it is all downhill on the way back.
The whole hike takes about 1 1/2 hours. Flowers of note were Indian
pinks, lots of elegant clarkia, heart shaped penstemon, cliff asters, sticky
monkey flower and a few patches of mayweed. We also saw:
California everlasting, elderberry, greenbark ceanothus, canyon sunflower and
bush sunflower, California poppy, morning glory, chamise, tree tobacco, black
sage, purple nightshade, bull thistle, caterpillar phacelia, yarrow, bedstraw,
verbena and horehound. The amount of Italian thistle was a
little overwhelming. Look for the patch that is flattened where
Fred fell. We saw two beautiful California Sisters butterflies in the
oak glen. – Fred and Nellie |
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Escondido Canyon Park |
Escondido Falls Trail |
Date: 05/22/2011 |
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Escondido Canyon
is located off Winding Way Drive which is off PCH. The parking
lot is near PCH, but there is a long walk through the neighborhood to reach
the trailhead. At the end of the trail is a waterfall. It was
only running moderately today, however, the ferns, moss and algae growing on
the rocks was quite lovely. At the beginning of the trail was the
ever-prevalent black mustard and Italian thistle and also a forest of
hemlock. We also saw: tocalote, blue eyed grass, bush mallow,
hummingbird sage, canyon sunflower, black sage, sticky monkey flower, Indian
paintbrush, deerweed, wild rose, blackberry, purple sage, verbena, sweet
yellow clover, lupine, elderberry, bush sunflower, cliff aster, vetch,
scarlet pimpernel, heart shaped penstemon, hedge nettle, bedstraw and a small
patch of coastal lotus.
– Fred and Nellie |
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Rancho Sierra Vista / Point Mugu State Park |
Cabin Trail |
Date: 05/21/2011 |
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Take Wendy Drive
past Lynn road until you reach the trailhead at Potrero Road. There are
several trails in this area. The cabin trail is off the trail which
leads to the waterfall. We found an abundance of flowers and
wildlife. The air was filled with the buzzing of busy
bees. We saw many inside of flowers gathering nectar. We
also saw four types of lizards; alligator, side spot, western fence
and two huge whiptails. One was on the road and another
was hiding in a snowberry bush. We also saw a large gopher snake
slithering across the trail. It was a very rewarding hike.
We were greeted at the beginning of the trail with wild rose bushes.
There was quite a lot of Italian thistle, which has been a usual sight this
year and black mustard also. Other flowers include: wild radish,
sticky monkey flower, California everlasting, California poppy, purple
nightshade, farewell to spring, morning glory, red stemmed and bird beak
filaree, horehound, vetch, tocalote, green bark ceanothus, deerweed, black
sage, verbena, bush mallow, chamise, golden stars, microseris, fiesta flower,
Indian pinks, mountain dandelion, white and yellow yarrow, hummingbird sage,
canyon sunflower, elderberry, scarlet pimpernel, buckwheat, bush sunflower,
wishbone, caterpillar phacelia, fennel, cliff aster, bedstraw, heart leaf
penstemon, lupine, blackberry, hedge nettle, Indian paintbrush, snowberry
(it was a large bush, but only one flower) chalk dudleya and one
cudweed hiding in the deerweed.
– Fred and Nellie |
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Topanga Canyon State Park |
Santa Ynez Canyon |
Date: 05/19/2011 |
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Entering on the
Palisades side, trailhead at the end of Vereda de
la Montura St. which branches off of Palisades
Drive. This is one of my
favorite hikes. The creekside area is always green and shady. Be aware that a lot of the green is poison
oak, long pants and long sleeves are a good idea. This canyon is a
gem in the summer time. It gets a lot
of summer flowers after the hillsides have dried up. It is not quite there yet but there is
still a lot of water in the creek and a lot of flowers in bloom. Upon entering the trail flowering black
sage, canyon sunflower and hedge nettle were immediately visible. As I walked along I saw blackberry flowers,
purple nightshade, sticky monkey flower, wild rose, deer weed, bush lupine,
honeysuckle, lance leaf dudleya, sweet pea and wild morning glory in
bloom. The cream bush, which is one of
the special flowers on this hike, is just getting started. I really went on this trail to look at the
chaparral portion that heads of the mountain to Trippett
Ranch. May often has spectacular
flowers in this section. Not this
time. There are flowers worth going to
see, but not the abundance that is often there. There are the usual chaparral flowers;
yucca, golden yarrow, yellow pin cushion, chamise, Turkish rugging,
California buckwheat and owl's clover.
There are only a few specimens of the more exciting flowers that often
occur here; white snapdragon, scarlet larkspur, golden star lilies and globe
gilia. The scarlet larkspur looked as
though it had been browsed by deer.
There were a lot of butterflies; checkerspots,
California sisters, mourning cloaks, swallowtails and a lot of little
blues. – Dorothy Steinicke |
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Paramount Ranch |
Trail behind the Train Depot |
Date: 05/19/2011 |
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I often don't
think of Paramount Ranch as a good hiking spot for sighting flowers,
but this trail had quite an abundance of flowers. It would be a great trail
to take a family with younger children as the trail is short (about an
hour) and the western town is fun and there are bathrooms. Go
through the western town to the train depot. The trail is to the right
and goes up a small hill. Yarrow lined almost the entire trail with
sprinklings of elegant clarkia and woolly blue curls. The yellow and
purple combination was quite appealing. Other notable plants
include: golden current in berry, abundant black mustard, tocalote, red
stemmed filaree, Italian thistle and milk thistle, mint leaf verbena, a very
large horehound bush, caterpillar phacelia, perezia, purple clarkia,
elderberry, chamise, buckwheat, a nice large patch of foothill penstemon,
quite a few yuccas up the hillside, owl's clover, slender sunflower, purple
nightshade, purple sage, golden stars, mountain dandelion, spring vetch,
pineapple plant, and fiddleneck. There is a short trail off to the
left of the main trail which leads to a secluded picnic bench. We also
saw a baby rattlesnake slithering across the road and a horned lizard hiding
in a bush.– Fred and Nellie |
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Malibu Creek State Park |
Cistern Trial |
Date: 05/18/2011 |
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There are some
nice blooms on the Cistern trail in Malibu Creek State Park. The
trailhead is located about 1.6 miles west of Las Virgenes Road on Mulholland
Highway, on the south side of the street. The trail is not signed, but
there is a "no bikes" sign at the trailhead. There is a
colony of Matilija Poppies near the beginning of the trail. I also saw
California Buckwheat, Golden Yarrow, Black and Purple Sage, Deerweed.
Purple Nightshade, Canyon Sunflower, Sticky Monkeyflower, Woolly Bluecurls,
Indian Paintbrush, Scarlet Pimpernel, and Vervain. Continuing
west on the canyon bottom and turning right on the Cage Creek trail there are
some annuals blooming; Elegant Clarkia, Caterpillar Phacelia, and at the
junction of the Cage Creek trail and the Lookout Trail there is some Specked
Clarkia. Further on up the Lookout Trail there is White Popcorn Flower
and Goldenstar. The hike that I am describing is a 2 and 1/2 mile loop:
Take the Cistern Trail down to the canyon bottom and turn right,
right on the Cage Creek trail, and right on the Lookout Trail which
takes you back to the Cistern Trail.
– Jim Garafalo |
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Castro Crest |
Backbone Trail |
Date: 05/15/2011 |
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The section of the
Backbone trail from Kanan Rd to Latigo Cyn is showing some really nice blooms
right now. This part of the trail heads east , over tunnel #1 on Kanan
Rd. Among the flowers that you will see are Sticky Monkey Flower,
Indian Paintbrush, Golden Yarrow, Fiesta Flower, Mariposa Lily, a
couple of different kinds of Phacelia, Black Sage, Purple Sage, Pitcher Sage,
Wooly Blue Curls, Elegant Clarkia, Canyon Sunflower, and Bush Lupine.
If you cross the road when you get to Latigo Canyon road and continue east on
the backbone trail for a little ways, there are even more nice blooms,
including some Indian Pinks. This trail has some of the best wildflower
displays that I have seen this season in the Santa Monica’s. – Jim Garafalo |
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Red Rock Canyon Park |
Red Rock Fire Road |
Date: 05/15/2011 |
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The park is at the
very end of Red Rock Canyon Rd. which intersects Old Topanga Rd. Be careful on Red Rock Canyon Rd. There are many blind curves and several
places where it is essentially only one lane wide. This was one of
the nicest and most flower filled walks I've been on it a while. The trail is a fire road that heads uphill
out of the parking area. On your right
is a still running stream. On your
left towering rock walls pocked with many worn away holes. There are masses of blooming flowers
clustered together. There is golden
yarrow, elegant clarkia, blue dick, chamise, elder flower, wild roses, banks
of Chinese houses, purple nightshade, virgin's bower in seed pods, canyon
sunflower, sticky monkey flower, holly leaf cherry, California chicory, lance
leaf dudleya, Indian pinks and lots of blue larkspur and
farewell-to-spring. The green
hillsides above the creek are speckled with flowering yucca. Continuing uphill you leave the rock
formations behind and find yourself inside a giant green bowl. There are still a lot of flowers along the
road including black sage, wild morning glory, deer weed, bush lupine,
California everlasting, Indian paintbrush, California buckwheat purple sage
and a few mariposas. There is one
stand of surprisingly large hummingbird sage plants in bloom. Surprisingly there are prickly phlox and
greenbark ceanothus still in bloom.
The road comes to a T the left, downhill direction will take you to
Stunt Rd. The right continues
uphill. That is the way I went. This stretch is much more exposed and had
fewer flowers but there were still some rewarding surprises. There was bush sunflower, yellow monkey
flower, woolly blue curls, mustard evening primrose, popcorn flower, cliff
aster and white snapdragon. In one
sheltered patch just off the trail there was a large clump of notable
penstemon. – Dorothy
Steinicke |
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Malibu Creek State Park |
Crags Road |
Date: 05/15/2011 |
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It was a beautiful
day in Malibu Creek with blue skies and puffy white clouds and a wonderful
day for a hike. However, there were not too many flowers. We
walked from the lower parking lot to the rock pool and then back to Crags
Road past the MASH site to the Malibu Lake community.
The flowers we saw were: black mustard, spring vetch, storkbeak filaree, Italian thistle, poison hemlock,
yarrow, purple sage, bedstraw, deerweed, bush mallow, sticky monkey flower,
red stem filaree, popcorn flower, caterpillar phacelia, elderberry, foothill
penstemon, farewell to spring, elegant clarkia, some large wild rose
bushes and one brilliant deep red colored purple clarkia on the
right hand side of the road past the MASH site.– Fred and
Nellie |
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Triunfo Canyon Park |
Pentachaeta Trail |
Date: 05/10/2011 |
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The Pentachaeta Trail
is located at the end of Triunfo Canyon Road at Lindero Canyon Road.
The trail was delightfully blooming with flowers. There was a few large
patches of Pentachaeta fairly close to the trailhead. We also saw
elderberry, California poppy, elegant clarkia, yarrow, foothill penstemon, mulefat, hollyleaf redberry, black mustard, curly dock,
California everlasting, chamise, Italian thistle, purple nightshade,
gooseberry fuschia, milk thistle, sweet yellow clover, pineapple plant, blue
eyed grass, yucca, blue dicks, purple sage, woolly blue curls, and
lupine. We went up a small trail to the right and saw creek monkey
flower and globe lily. The trail went into a dry creek and was so
overgrown we went back onto the main trail, but were glad for the detour to
see both of these flowers. Back on the mail trail we saw black sage,
mint leaf verbena, scarlet pimpernel, sticky monkey flower, golden stars
(just a couple of almost dead ones). Then we happened upon a gopher
snake in the middle of the trail. It looked at us for a few minutes and
then slithered back into the grass. Continuing on we saw deerweed,
caterpillar phacelia, English plantain, and sugarbush.
We ventured up another small trail and encountered miner's lettuce, virgin's
bower and some honeysuckle growing on a scrub oak tree. It was a great
hike!. – Fred and Nellie |
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Circle X Ranch |
Grotto Trail |
Date: 05/02/2011 |
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There is still a
lot of water in the creek and newts cavorting which makes this hike especially
nice. There is black sage, canyon
sunflower, blue dicks, blooming sugar bush, sticky monkey flower and purple
nightshade. Past the second creek
crossing there is a rock wall with water seeping down it. It is completely covered in masses of creek
monkey flowers with a gathering of Chinese houses, Santa Monica Mountain
dudleya and willow herb clarkia below it.
Really lovely. The trail up to
the meadow has popcorn flower, deer weed, caterpillar phacelia, wild morning
glory, California chicory and woolly blue curls. The meadow is carpeted with Catalina
mariposa lilies and spring vetch.
Continuing down through the chaparral there are star lilies, flowering
yucca, golden yarrow, chamise, hedge nettle, blue eyed grass and hummingbird
sage. Look for more newts in the creek
below. – Dorothy Steinicke |
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Circle X Ranch |
Canyon View Trail |
Date: 05/02/2011 |
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This trail does
not have the lovely accompaniment of a nearby stream, but as the name suggests,
there are wonderful views. The
beginning of the trail (branching off from the Grotto Trail) is nearly
carpeted with yellow monkey flowers.
There are twining snapdragons, black sage, California buckwheat,
chamise, blooming yucca, wild morning glory, blue dicks as well as purple
clarkia, elegant clarkia, globe gilia caterpillar phacelia and gorgeous
Perry’s phacelia. There are some
collarless poppies and blooming sugar bush as well as star lilies and butterfly
mariposas. We walked as far as the creek
filled with step pools and lined with blooming red skinned onions, creek
monkey flower and speedwell. A lovely
spot. – Dorothy Steinicke |
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Los Robles East |
Oak Creek Cyn Loop |
Date: 05/02/2011 |
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This is a nice trail
because it is close to Thousand Oaks and easy to access. It is a good
trail to hike when you don't have much time, but want some variety and a
little bit of a workout. Take Moorpark Rd. to where it dead ends at the
mountains. Turn right on Green meadow and follow to the trail
head. The trail starts in an oak grove. When you leave the grove
you'll be in a coastal sage scrub area. The Los Robles east trail
leads up to a hilltop that offers magnificent views of the Conejo
Valley. Chamise and black sage were in abundance. Some other
flowers that we saw include: purple nightshade, horehound, Italian
thistle, black mustard, annual bedstraw, rock rose (right near the parking
lot) white nightshade (near the trailhead), elderberry, pearly everlasting, gooseberry
fuschia, sugar bush, canyon sunflower, popcorn flower, sticky monkey flower,
cobweb thistle (up a small trail to the right), prickly phlox, deerweed,
goosefoot, yarrow, verbena, mariposa lily, sweet yellow clover, scarlet
pimpernel, fiddleneck, tree tobacco, greenbark ceanothus, morning glory, bush
sunflower, stork's beak, and one blue dick. Other notable sightings
include: a prickly pear with fruit, five wild cucumber seed pods
hanging in a row on a tree branch looking like Christmas ornaments and a
yucca in bud. All in all it was a great hike considering it was a quick
get away after work. – Fred
and Nellie |
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Paramount Ranch |
Misc. Trails |
Date: 04/29/2011 |
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Leaving the Western
Town area I took the Coyote Trail and then wound around to the northwest and
returned by way of an informal trail through the grassland. In less than two miles I saw spring vetch,
blue dicks, purple nightshade, golden yarrow, elegant clarkia (early),
wishbone flower (late), elder flower, chia and chamise in bloom. There was owl's clover, flowering yucca,
caterpillar phacelia and woolly blue curls.
In the deep shade there were Chinese houses, fiesta flowers,
hummingbird sage, prickly phlox, sugar bush and cinquefoil. In the grassland there were a lot of
California poppies. – Dorothy Steinicke |
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Wildwood Park |
Misc. Trails |
Date: 04/26/2011 |
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We started at the
main trailhead on Arboles and headed west, then
down to the creek, continuing west along the creek to the falls, the picnic
areas, and the treatment plant, and then north up the switchbacks to lizard
rock. From there you have a magnificent vista including the lovely broad open
valley looking back east to where you can see your car sitting in the
distance. The only annuals that seem to be doing well are the weedy one's
I'll not mention by name here. It was a lovely hike on a lovely afternoon,
but of the about thirty species found in bloom there was not much to write
home about. Some of the highlights include purple sage, blue dicks, Several
Catalina mariposa lilies scattered in the grassy fields, chamise, California
wild rose, California buckwheat, Turkish rugging, black sage, yucca,
rattlesnake weed (the low prostrate one) caterpillar phacelia, chia, bush
mallow, morning glory, golden yarrow, popcorn flower, wishbone bush, sugar
bush, California blackberry, purple nightshade, and scarlet pimpernel. As you
can see I gave up and added some of the weeds to this list just to make it a
bit longer. – ed. |
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Castro Crest Area |
Backbone Trail |
Date: 04/23/2011 |
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This is becoming
one of my very favorite places to hike.
There are amazing views from the parking lot. Standing at the trailhead
you can see golden yarrow, deer weed, woolly blue curls, black sage, chamise
and wild morning glory in bloom.
Descending through the chaparral there is blooming California
everlasting, purple nightshade, chaparral current, sticky monkey flower and
popcorn flowers. Entering the wooded
canyon bottom you cross and recross little
streams. I counted fourteen water
crossings in all. In that wooded shade
there are milkmaids, miner's lettuce, sweet pea, fiesta flowers, johnny jump
ups, fuchsia flowering gooseberry and canyon sunflowers. Rising up again through the chaparral there
are California poppies and blue dicks. Walk as far as you like and return as
you came. – Dorothy
Steinicke |
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Circle X Ranch |
Backbone Trail |
Date: 04/21/2011 |
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This section of
the backbone trail from the parking lot at the Mishe Mokwa Trailhead out to
the south side of Triunfo Peak overlooking the ocean and then back is one of
my favorites. It has a good variety of habitats and many sheltered nooks and
crannies which can harbor shy flowers. For this time of year it is probably
one of the best flower producers at Circle X Ranch. The flowering highlights
included bush mallow, golden yarrow, bush sunflower, a couple of the little
native clovers, red-skinned onion, lance-leaved dudleya, bush lupine, chia,
chinese houses, a couple of chocolate lilies still holding on, a few woodland
star, blue larkspur, sticky cinquefoil, a single farewell-to-spring,
elderberry, Parry's phacelia, yellow monkey flower, holly-leaved cherry,
fiesta flower, miner's lettuce, hedge nettle, wild cucumber, sugar bush,
morning glory, california everlasting, purple nightshade, popcorn flower,
caterpillar phacelia, bush monkey flower, black sage, tarweed, silver puffs,
brown microseris, virgin's bower, Chinese houses, woodland star, a couple of
the little wooly-heads, deerweed plus a couple of it’s small lotus
cousins as well, ceanothus megacarpus in a spare second-bloom, rock rose,
Eastwood manzanita, chamise, prickly phlox, buckwheat, woolly blue curls,
blue dicks, Douglas sandwort, and the common fiddleneck. All told well over
seventy different species in bloom but most only in modest to low numbers.
Still, a pretty darn good showing in an off-year. – ed. |
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Oakbrook Regional Park |
Hidden Meadow Trail |
Date: 04/19/2011 |
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The trailhead is
located at the end of Falling Star Ave. which is off of Kanan Rd. Go
all the way to the end of the Cul de sac. The
trail is on the right side of the street. We started out thinking there
wouldn't be much to see. However, we were mistaken. We went at
4:00 in the afternoon, which was a perfect time as the sun was low, the
shadows abundant, and a gentle breeze. Chemise and black sage
were blooming along the whole trail. The scent of black sage
was delightful. We also saw these plants in bloom: bush sunflower,
sugar bush, California buckwheat, prickly phlox, morning glory, black
mustard, prickly poppy ( just one on the left hand side), purple
nightshade, sticky monkey flower, hoary leaf ceanothus, two tone everlasting,
popcorn flower, lupine, wooly blue curls, deer weed, wishbone, nolina,
strigose lotus, cobweb thistle, horehound, caterpillar phacelia, hairy leaf
ceanothus, Brauton’s rattle weed, 1 blue dick, slender sunflower, wild
cucumber, foothill penstemon, and bedstraw. The Brauton’s rattle
weed was located on a side trail to the left just before you reach a large
fire road with a power line. There were five plants
in bloom. When we walked up the hill we were greeted
by several areas filled with slender sunflowers and woolly blue curls.
It was a nice view at the top of the hill.
– Fred and Nellie |
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Cold Creek Preserve |
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Date: 04/19/2011 |
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We hiked in the
creek bed and along the upper trail. We also saw several California
frogs in the creek. The plants that we saw in bloom: Caterpillar
phacelia, popcorn flower, storksbill filaree,
canyon sunflower, sweet yellow clover, horsetail, morning glory, sticky
monkey flower, sugar bush, purple nightshade, bedstraw, blackberry, poison
oak, mule fat, pitcher/hummingbird sage, miner's lettuce, bush lupine, black
sage, California buckwheat, Indian pink, greenbark ceanothus. – Fred and Nellie |
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Cold Creek Canyon |
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Date: 04/19/2011 |
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We hiked mainly
along the creek but saw a lot of flowers on the path down to the creek and on
another path returning from the creek. There was a lovely grove of white
thorn ceanothus, which is an unusual sight. Most of the blooms on the
white thorns were gone but we spotted a few. We saw a lot of single
stemmed yellow aster-like flowers in the meadow areas. I couldn't find
their name. They had grasslike stems and leaves. These are the
plants we saw in bloom: elderberry, blue dick, purple nightshade, filaree,
wild cucumber, California buckwheat, deerweed, sweet pea, sticky monkey
flower, canyon sunflower, wild dandelion, gooseberry fuschia, yellow sweet clover,
bajada lupine, greenbark ceanothus, pimpernel, black sage, cotton plant,
sugar bush, yarrow, bedstraw, pitcher/hummingbird sage, windmill pink,
blackberry, spring vetch, bur-weed, coastal live oak, shiny lomatium, poison
oak, milk maids, white thorn ceanothus, sow thistle, prickly phlox, pin
cushion, fiesta flower, two tone everlasting, mountain mahogany, chia, yucca,
arroyo willow, scarlet buglar, notable penstemon. – Fred and Nellie |
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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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