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Page Revised: 6/6/09 |
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Available Site Reviews Paramount Ranch Topanga Canyon State Park Malibu Creek State Park Backbone Trail Nicholas Flat Newton/Zuma Canyons Circle X Ranch Upper Solstice Canyon Castro Crest |
Date of Reviews 6/3. 6/2 & 5/21 & 5/20. 5/29. 5/16. 5/15. 5/11. 5/4. 5/3. 5/1. |
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What's Blooming photo gallery: http://www.researchlearningcenter.com/bloom/bloom.htm |
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Late spring in SoCal
always reminds me of summer or even fall elsewhere and this year is no
exception. The spring rains ended a
bit too early to give a us a great blooming season but most of the flowers we
see in any given year have made their appearance, if in smaller numbers and
for a shorter period of time than typical. Many of the early spring flowers
have been mostly gone for awhile now and are getting hard to find even in the
sheltered areas. On the other hand
many of the later spring flowers like the appropriately named “Farewell
to Spring” are up and blooming well now. However, if you look carefully you may
still find a few of those earlier species holding on in sheltered nooks and
crannies. Please note that because we
are in transition from early spring to late spring many of the flower reports
here are more out of date than you might otherwise expect. This is especially true since some of the
reports are getting a bit old as people often stop sending them in once the
drama of early spring subsides.
– ed. |
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Paramount Ranch |
Coyote/Hacienda/Backdrop/Bwana Trails Loop |
Date: 6/3 |
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This was my first time hiking at
Paramount Ranch. We combined these trail segments to make a two mile
loop. There is a nice variety of chaparral, woodland, meadow and
riparian habitats. We left the western town and headed up into the
chaparral on the Coyote Trail. There were elegant clarkia, golden
yarrow, sticky monkey flower, chamise, black sage, slender tarweed, flowering
yucca, wild morning glory and Indian pinks. There were also foothill
penstemon and common madia, both of which are not commonly seen by me.
At that point the Coyote Trail turns back to the Western Town, we
continued on the Hacienda Trail. There we saw bush sunflowers, heart
leaf penstemon, golden stars and bush mallow. Heading up the hill on
the Backdrop Trail we saw white sage, gum plant, Turkish rugging, cliff
aster, caterpillar phacelia, chalk live forever and narrow leaf milkweed.
We returned to the western town on the Bwana Trail which goes through
the meadow and by Medea Creek. The flowers weren't fabulous but there
was a good variety and I enjoyed finding a few which I haven't seen in a
while. – Dorothy Steinicke. |
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Topanga Canyon State
Park |
Dead Horse Trail made into a loop |
Date: 6/2 |
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This hike is more notable for its
fauna than its flora at this time of year, but there are still flowers worth
visiting. Leaving the Trippet Ranch Parking lot up the paved road you
turn left on the Dead Horse Trail just past the pond. There are oaks on
one side of the trail and grassland on the other. Purple clarkia, gum
plant and slender tarweed line the trail. I saw ten deer in the meadow
today including four little spotty fawns. Ground squirrels are zipping
around and swallows are swooping down for insects. There are a few blue
eyed grass still in bloom. Also sticky monkey flower, narrow leaf
milkweed, vervain and chamise. The trail heads into chaparral and there
is blooming black sage, deer weed, California live forever and turkish
rugging. The trail splits with one branch going to the Dead Horse
parking lot and the other signed for Entrada Rd. Turn onto the trail
heading for Entrada. The only impressive bloom is a bright stand of
woolly blue curls. When Entrada Rd. is in sight watch for the trail
marker to the left signed for Trippet Ranch. Take that trail which
wanders around and ends up at the entry kiosk. This is an easy 1 mile
hike.. – Dorothy Steinicke. |
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Malibu Creek State Park |
Reagan Meadows |
Date: 5/29 |
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This is the secret (free!) back end
of Malibu Creek State Park. Enter from Lake Vista Dr. just south of Mulholland
Hwy. There is a dirt parking area just inside the park. Park
there and walk up the paved drive to some park maintenance buildings.
On the other side of the buildings Reagan Meadow stretches out in front
of you. The meadow is filled with just about every clarkia that we
have; elegant clarkia, speckled clarkia, purple clarkia and
farewell-to-spring. These are interspersed with golden stars, vervain
and vetch. The trail is lined with slender tarweed and gum plant.
There are banks of sticky monkey flower here and there and thickets of
wild rose and elderberry. We passed one blooming mallow bush and saw
one lingering Catalina mariposa lily. We took the 'low trail' on the
way out and the 'high trail' or the "Deer Leg Trail" on the way
back to make a loop. The Deer Leg Trail goes under oaks and there we
saw golden yarrow, purple sage, deer weed, California buckwheat, cliff aster
and chamise. Best of all on this upper section we saw first one, then
two, then a small hillside of yellow mariposas. – Dorothy Steinicke. |
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Topanga Canyon State
Park |
Santa Ynez Trail |
Date: 5/21 |
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The beginning of this hike is along a
creek in a shady canyon. A good walk for a hot day. Just watch out
for the plentiful poison oak. In the creekside
area there is canyon sunflower, black sage, bush lupine, sticky monkey
flower, California bee plant, California buckwheat, blackberry, California
everlasting, wild rose, hedge nettle, purple and white nightshades,
elderberry, and large flower and caterpillar phacelia. Climbing up into
the chaparral portion of the trail that leads up to Trippet Ranch there are
Turkish rugging, yellow pin cushion, white snapdragon, star lily, golden
yarrow, deer weed, chamise and heart leaf penstemon. – Dorothy Steinicke. |
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Topanga Canyon State
Park |
Trippet Ranch Nature Trail |
Date: 5/20 |
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The Trippet Ranch pond is,
surprisingly, full of water. The water is full of tadpoles. There
are also mallards and a great egret. The milkweed in the meadow by the
old nature center are just about to bloom. Also in that meadow are lots
of purple clarkia. Continuing into the chaparral portion there are bush
lupine, bush sunflowers, black sage, elderberry, California buckwheat and
some lovely mallow along with some really stunning flowering yuccas. – Dorothy Steinicke. |
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Saddle Peak |
Backbone Trail |
Date: 5/16 |
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Today’s hike was number nine of
the NPS sponsored Backbone Trail hikes in the 2008 – 2009 series. We
are hiking west to east, one section of the Backbone Trail each month. With hot off-shore winds at the top
of the range the cool, fog-shrouded coast below us was tempting. But our route stayed inland and would
reward us with over 65 native species in bloom. From Saddle Peak to the top of Hondo Canyon
offered fabulous vistas and late spring bouquets of some of the hardiest
species: golden yarrow, bush monkey flower, sugar bush, California buckwheat,
deer weed, morning glory, and caterpillar phacelia. Once in the cool shade of
Hondo’s north-facing slopes we descended from chamise chaparral through
California bay woodlands and finally to sheltering oak riparian. Along the way we encountered a varied array
of species in bloom. The drier, higher
environs of slender tarweed and Turkish rugging segued into chaparral understories with 3 clarkia species still in all their
glory. By the time we reached Old
Topanga and its pocket grasslands we had glimpsed golden stars, star lily,
wooly blue curls, blue eyed grass, Chinese houses, fuchsia flowering
gooseberry, buttercups, wild brodiaea, and much more. On the climb from Old Topanga to
Trippet Ranch we saw only a few species in flower, but appreciated them all
the more due to their scarcity. Rating:
Enjoyable. – R. Waycott (and
others). |
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Nicholas Flat |
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Date: 5/15 |
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We did a quick hike out to the pond at
Nicholas Flat and back to check on the water level and the red-winged
blackbirds. It was a nice cool day but
the wildflowers are definitely transitioning out of the grand displays of
early spring. This area has a lot of
weeds because the many years of ranching still lay heavily upon the
land. Nevertheless the pond is
reliable enough to support true aquatic plants and the song of the blackbirds
is worth hearing. The hike to the pond
is short, less than half a mile, but there is a lot of additional hiking to
be done if you wish. There is even a
trail that goes all the way down to the coast at Leo Carrillo State Beach.
Flowering highlights (few as they were) included golden yarrow, Indian
paintbrush, deerweed, caterpillar phacelia, morning glory, Chinese houses,
bush monkey flower, purple nightshade, a few crimson pitcher sage, canyon
sunflower, California chicory, greenbark ceanothus, sugar bush, purple
clarkia, sticky madia, mountain dandelion, black sage, blue-eyed grass, and
common verbena. Rating: Fair. – ed. |
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Newton/Zuma Canyons |
Backbone
trail between Latigo and Kanan |
Date: 5/11 |
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We started at the Latigo trailhead of
the backbone trail and hiked west to the Kanan trailhead and then hiked back.
This section of the backbone is pretty short so the whole hike was less than
five miles. Of note is the appearance
of several of the late spring/early summer flowers. This particular section has an unusually
high amount of tree cover for the Santa Monica Mountains so it is a nice hike
on a hot day. All told we saw a little
less than seventy species in bloom which is pretty good this late in the
season, especially for a dry year. We
can expect that number to drop soon as it continues to dry out. There are already much lower quantities of
most flowers in evidence. Parts of
this trail, especially near Latigo, have a disappointing number of invasive
weedy species which are beginning to supplant the native wildflowers. Flowering highlights included dense stands
of bush monkey flower, chamise, purple sage, black sage, bird’s beak,
California buckwheat, golden yarrow, hillside penstemon, three different
sunflowers, several different lupines, a couple of early heart-leaved
penstemon, caterpillar phacelia, sugar bush, purple nightshade, popcorn
flowers, sticky madia, California chicory, morning glory, quite a few crimson
pitcher sage still holding on, California figwort, the native western thistle
with its beautiful purple flowers, elderberry, yucca, Catalina mariposa lily,
globe gilia, miner’s lettuce, fiesta flower, Chinese houses, blue-eyed
grass, mountain dandelion, blue larkspur, sticky cinquefoil, common vervain,
elegant clarkia, and Indian paintbrush.
Rating: Good. – ed. |
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Circle X Ranch |
Mishe
Mokwa Trail |
Date: 5/4 |
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We hiked out to split rock and then
up the canyon west to the stream crossing and then turned back. Things are definitely drying out now. All told we saw about 70 species in bloom
but several were on their way out even as the later spring flowers are
beginning to show nicely. Flowering
highlights included blue dicks, black sage, wooly blue curls, golden yarrow,
Catalina mariposa lily, spotted, purple, and willow-herb clarkias, California
chicory, popcorn flowers, chamise, yellow and bush monkey flowers, turkish
rugging, tarweed, dwarf flax, golden stars, purple clarkia, star lily,
caterpillar, mountain, and Parry’s phacelias, stick-leaf, chia,
collarless California poppy, sugar bush, yucca, both yellow and white pin
cushions, miner’s lettuce, purple nightshade, chinese houses, canyon
sunflower, sticky cinquefoil, angel’s and globe gilias,
red-skinned onion, blue larkspur, stinky gilia, fiesta flower, white thorn
white pitcher sage, sticky madia, California blackberry, morning glory,
yellow cress, an early bird’s beak, and California buckwheat. Rating: Good. – ed. |
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Upper Solstice Canyon |
Backbone
Trail |
Date: 5/3 |
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A two-hour round-trip hike netted over
60 species in bloom along the Backbone Trail
through Upper Solstice Canyon -- including Caterpillar Phacelia,
Golden Yarrow, Black Sage, Woolly Blue Curls, Bush Monkeyflower,
Slender Sunflower, California Chicory, Rush Rose, Catalina Mariposa Lily,
Mouse-eared Chickweed, Red-skinned Onion, the native California
Mustard, Fiesta Flower, Globe Gilia, Silver Puffs, Sticky Cinquefoil,
Skullcap, and two kinds of Vetch (American Vetch and possibly Slim
Vetch). On the drive up to Castro Crest the hills along Corral Canyon Rd., burned in the
most recent Malibu fire, were covered with Morning Glories plus an
occasional Large-flowered Phacelia.
– Jay Sullivan. |
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Castro Crest |
Backbone
Trail west of the Corral Canyon
trailhead |
Date: 5/1 |
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This nice section of the Backbone
Trail passes through several different ecosystems and thus affords a diverse
array of plant species. There is quite
a bit of shade along some sections but others are very exposed and dry so be
sure to bring your hat and sun block. I descended from the Corral Canyon
trailhead and passed through the area that burned recently. Most of the flowers there are you typical
fire-followers but many have already passed their prime. I moved down to the lowers section that
parallels the creek and was pleased to see some persistent pools of water in
the creek bed. I had made the trip
down to the creek to find a particular flower that I wanted to photograph and
add to our flower gallery. However,
the hike was so inviting I spent much of the day down there even after I
found my goal. In all I saw about eighty
species in bloom – not bad at all for this time of year. However, I expect that number to drop fast
in the near future – many were clearly finishing up their blooming
season. Flowering highlights include
morning glory (they are robust fire-followers), both bush and yellow monkey
flowers, California chicory, whispering bells, a couple of different evening
primroses, blue dicks, purple nightshade, greenbark ceanothus, chamise,
golden yarrow, slender sunflower, wooly blue curls, turkish rugging, star
lily, caterpillar phacelia, several different popcorn flowers, several
different lupines, red-skinned onion, silver puffs, miner’s lettuce,
skullcap, angel’s gilia, globe gilia, fiesta flower, milk maids, sticky
cinquefoil, winter cress, western pearlwort, woodland star, Jonny jump-up,
blackberry, collarless California poppy, mountain dandelion, blue-eyed grass,
Chinese houses, American vetch, scarlet bugler, and fuchsia-flowered
gooseberry. Rating: Good. – ed. |
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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: e-mail: or phone
Tony at 310-457-6408 |
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