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Available Reviews
Topanga State Park Triunfo Creek Park Zuma Canyon Malibu Creek SP Red Rock Canyon Park Stunt Ranch Circle X Ranch Will Rogers SP Malibu Lagoon State Beach |
Date of Review
6/15 & 5/29 & 5/9 & 5/4 & 4/24 & 4/20 & 4/18. 6/4 & 5/21. 5/28. 5/24 & 4/15 & 3/28. 5/15. 4/30. 3/31. 3/23. 8/2/17. |
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I think everyone knows that the drought in Southern California is serious (currently ranked in the Santa Monicas as D2: Severe Drought), but despite that things haven't looked too bad in some locations. As the year winds down it becomes more difficult for the average hiker to find flowers and therefore it is an even greater service to keep us all informed. I was out of the country for a few weeks but I'm back now and will try to keep this newsletter updated as long as people continue to submit reports.
This site performs a public service that anyone can participate in. Let us all know what you are seeing! In general, if you are submitting a report I will usually get it much faster if you use the gmail account 'SMMWildFlowers' rather than my nps.gov account. If you are new to submitting a report (or maybe even an old hand at it) be sure and read How To Submit a Flower Report — ed. |
| Topanga State Park |
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6/15 |
The Humboldt lilies have come into bloom and they are magnificent. There are other flowers to be seen along this trail but the Humboldts are what you come for. There are also many, many chalcedon checkerspot butterflies. The butterflies cluster around the Humboldts and also canyon sunflowers, California buckwheat and yucca. There are also wild roses, heartleaf penstemon and bee plant. We saw a single blooming globe lily but I dare you to try and find it.
— Dorothy Steinicke
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| Triunfo Creek Park (Triunfo Canyon) |
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6/4 |
I was so intrigued by Jay Sullivan's description of this hike that I had to go and see if I could find four types of mariposa lilies. I could not. It seemed as though I was a couple of weeks too late. There were a lot of breathtaking yellow mariposas and that was satisfying and some impressive stands of foothills penstemon. But otherwise it was the general late spring flowers and the remains of earlier ones that had come and were now gone. Beyond the yellow mariposas and the foothill penstemon I saw 19 species in bloom. Some of the most impressive were elegant clarkia, Indian pinks, golden yarrow, wooly blue curls, slender tarred, and dudleya.
— Dorothy Steinicke
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| Topanga State Park |
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5/29 |
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Park at the very end of Los Liones Rd. (yes they are spelled differently). The trail is obvious. Los Liones is the the second traffic light on Sunset when coming inland from PCH. The road is only on the left.
This is a nice, well traveled trail with ocean, mountain and city views. There are a lot of flowers in bloom. The fact that they are mostly the more common wild flowers should not dim the enjoyment of them. Right off the bat there are clumps of sticky monkey flower, canyon sunflower, hedge nettle, deer weed, purple nightshade and cliff aster. There are shrubs of elderberry, greenback ceanothus and sugar bush blooming. I saw 22 species of blooming plants. I climbed to where the trail meets the Paseo Miramar fire road and then turned back. But if you like you can continue on that fire road all the way to Trippet Ranch. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Zuma Canyon |
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5/28 |
When we walked through the grassland at the beginning of the trail it seemed as though there was no longer much in bloom. There was a little datura and vervain and some blooming elderberry bushes. It wasn't until we took the left fork and headed up the hill that things got interesting. There was some milkwort, a lot of purple sage and a lot of heart leaf penstemon. There was also Indian paintbrush, golden and white yarrow and even some remaining Catalina mariposa lilies. Heading down into the riparian area there is morning glory cliff asters, California buckwheat and golden bush. Once down along the dry creek there are collar lupines, scarlet bugler, wishbone flower and Indian pinks.
— Dorothy Steinicke
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| Reagan Ranch, Malibu Creek State Park |
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5/24 |
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From the intersection of Mulholland, Cornell and Lake Vista, turn south on Lake Vista and almost immediately turn left into an unmarked entrance to Malibu Creek State Park. Turn left into the dirt parking lot. There are no signs. On foot, continue along the paved road to an area of several support buildings. Follow the road to the left of the barn and you will come to a sign marking the Yearling Trail.
The Yearling Trail heads off through grassland. The grass is browning but there are still golden stars, speckled clarkia, vervain and sticky gum plant in it. The trail forks and I took the Lake Vista Trail to the right which took me into woodlands. There I found purple nightshade, hummingbird sage, caterpillar phacelia and canyon sunflower. At a picnic table I encountered a couple coming down from a trail I hadn't known was there. They told me the flowers were fantastic on the trail and that it looped back to the parking lot. That was enough for me to try it so I turned right and started uphill through alternating chaparral and woodlands. The flowers were amazing. There were spectacular clumps of rose snapdragons and masses of elegant clarkias. There were whispering bells, a flower I don't see that often as well as white pincushion, Indian paintbrush, woolly blue curls and a lot of other flowers. The trail comes to a high point with an incredible, nearly 360 degree view and then starts rather steeply downhill. It ends at a dirt service road that you can follow back down to the parking area. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Triunfo Creek Park (Triunfo Canyon) |
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5/21 |
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Despite the dry year, the under-2-mile-long Pentachaeta Trail is looking pretty good, with 60-plus species in bloom -- including 4 types of Mariposa lilies, 3 Clarkias, and 2 Dudleyas. Among the most notable plants are: Butterfly Mariposa, Agoura Hills Dudleya, and, of course, the trail's namesake Lyon's Pentachaeta. (By the way, the Pentachaetas are open mainly on sunny afternoons.)
— Jay Sullivan
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| Red Rock Canyon Park |
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5/15 |
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Red Rock Canyon is tucked away out of sight and is relatively unknown but it can have some spectacular spring wild flower displays. From Old Topanga Road turn west on Red Rock Canyon Road. The road twists and meanders and becomes a one lane dirt road and you start feeling that you are on someone's driveway. But it will end in a small parking lot. Pay the iron ranger and continue up the dirt road past the locked gate.
There are large dramatic rock formations of the rock that gives the canyon its name. Right now there are great banks of clarkia, elegant clarkia and speckled clarkia. Interspersed among them are Chinese houses, blue larkspur and brilliantly red dudleya. These masses of flowers are punctuated by large clumps of golden yarrow and deer weed. Looking around for the bigger picture you will also see caterpillar phacelia, purple nightshade and sticky monkey flower. Looking out at the mountainside there is quite a bit of blooming yucca, chamise, black sage and sugar bush. A very satisfying walk. Turn back at any time. If you hike all the way to the T where there is a bench, you can either turn left and go downhill to the Stunt High Trail trailhead or right and climb high onto the ridge top heading toward Calabasas Peak and beyond. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Topanga State Park |
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5/9 |
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The Nature Trail at Trippet Ranch in Topanga State Park is a short, easy trail and a good way to see several ecosystems and, currently, a lot of flowers. From the parking lot walk through the shaded picnic area and follow the trail up to the Visitor's Center. If it is Sunday, it will be open to the public and you can go in and see some interesting exhibits. Crossing in front of the Visitor Center the trail winds up the hill through the oaks.
In that first part of the trail you will see canyon sunflowers, purple nightshade, hummingbird sage and fiesta flowers. Cross the fire road at the top of the hill and the trail will curve off to the left. If it is a clear day you will get a nice view of the ocean. When the trail enters the chaparral, that is when the flowers really get good. There is morning glory, sticky monkey flower, bush lupine, lots of deerweed, black sage, wishbone flower, and golden yarrow. The trail will wind you back to the fire road where you turn left and go downhill. At the dead oak that overhangs the road there are steps up to your right. Take them and follow the trail back to the Visitor's Center. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Topanga State Park |
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5/4 |
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I access this canyon bottom trail from the end of Vereda De La Montura Street off of Palisades Drive in Pacific Palisades. You can also reach it by way of a long downhill hike from Trippet Ranch. But then you have to climb back up.
There is now a lot more vetch and a lot more blackberry blooming in the riparian area. I saw a single blooming notable penstemon and I'm pretty confident that I have never seen that there before. Also in the riparian area there is blooming California sunflower, purple nightshade, bush lupine, sticky monkey flower and fiesta flower. There were many butterflies in the area near the creek; swallowtails, California sisters, checkerspots, mourning cloaks and blues. Climbing up into the chaparral there is much more yellow pincushion than there was two weeks ago. There is also lots of deerweed punctuated by blue dicks, chia, wishbone flower, and golden yarrow. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Stunt Ranch/Cold Creek Preserve |
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4/30 |
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This is a trail that is off of Stunt Road. It is reached from Mulholland. Turn south onto Stunt Rd. and drive one mile to the dirt parking area on the right that is defined by telephone poles on the ground. There is no sign. The trail begins at the uphill end of the parking lot.
This is another trail that has wonderful wild flower displays. The trail immediately goes down alongside a creek where there are stream orchids. Also in this riparian area there are purple nightshade, canyon sunflower, greenback ceanothus, fiesta flower and most exciting, fairy lanterns or globe lilies. Just watch out for the poison oak which is abundant. The trail then goes uphill into some grasslands where there is an astonishing array of Catalina mariposa lilies, lupines, blue eyed grass, golden star lilies and blue larkspur. Continuing further you get into chaparral where there is blooming sugar bush, golden yarrow, black sage, Chinese houses, sticky monkey flower and woolly blue curls. This is a very satisfying hike. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Topanga State Park |
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4/24 |
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From the Trippet Ranch parking lot, walk up the paved road to the top of the hill and then turn right onto the signed trail. You can do this as an 'in and out' hike or make a loop by walking to the fire road (about two miles) and then turning right and walking the fire road back to the parking lot.
You should go walk this trail right now. It is amazing. The landscape mostly alternates between woodlands and grasslands with a little chaparral thrown in. The grasslands are what are amazing. There are literally thousands of Catalina mariposa lilies, I don't remember seeing this many all at once before. Mixed in with them are blue dicks, blue eyed grass, owl's clover, buttercups and some golden star lilies but the mariposas are the true stars. The hike has a good number of other spring wild flowers; purple nightshade, canyon sunflower, sticky monkey flower, hummingbird sage, golden yarrow and elderberry. Two less commonly seen flowers that are in bloom are the yellow rock rose and the gorgeous notable penstemon, not a lot of either, but both lovely. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Topanga State Park |
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4/20 |
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I access this canyon bottom trail from the end of Vereda De La Montura Street off of Palisades Drive in Pacific Palisades. You can also reach it by way of a long downhill hike from Trippet Ranch. But then you have to climb back up.
This is a hike that I think of when it gets hot but to my surprise there were a lot of flowers in April. The predominant flower was vetch which was all along the trail. There was also a fair amount of purple nightshade, fiesta flower, blue dicks, blackberry and wild cucumber. We saw a single blossoming milkmaid and one fuchsia flowering gooseberry bush and one bush lupine. The most exciting thing was that there were literally hundreds of Humboldt lily plants. They may not survive to bloom, deer love to browse them, but they hint that there could be an amazing display in about a month. When we arrived at the end of the canyon bottom trail I dashed uphill into the chaparral to see if there was anything happening up there. There is! There was chia, yellow pin cushion and owl's clover. There is probably more but I had companions who didn't want to climb hills. This is a wonderful hike in any season. Just be aware of poison oak which is plentiful. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Topanga State Park |
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4/18 |
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I am tremendously gratified to see a significant flower bloom.
You can reach the Dead Horse Trail from the Trippet Ranch parking lot. Follow the paved service road over the bridge and, on the other side turn left onto the marked trail. The trail winds downhill about 2 miles to the Dead Horse parking lot off Entrada Rd. I went as far as the lovely wooden bridge, I'd guess 1.5 miles. Just remember that the return will be all uphill.
The trail begins with woodland on one side and grassland on the other. The grasses are full of tiny but lovely dove lupine and also spotted with blue eyed grass, blue dicks, fiesta flower and buttercups. There is an alcove in the woods that is filled with hummingbird sage. Just before the trail enters the chaparral there is a patch of lovely Catalina mariposa lilies. In the chaparral there are places where the trail is edged with tiny skullcap flowers. Higher up there are black sage, sticky monkey flower, wild cucumber and Eastwood manzanita and woolly blue curls. The trail continues through patches of woodland and chaparral. It isn't the greatest display of wildflowers I have ever seen but it is certainly satisfying. — Dorothy Steinicke 
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| Malibu Creek State Park |
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4/15 |
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The chaparral and meadow wildflowers along the Phantom Trail, North Grassland Trail, and Liberty Canyon Fire Road are putting on a decent display. I observed blue dicks, fiddleneck, wild pea, lupine, paintbrush, phacelia, and California poppies. The valley oaks on the ridges are especially beautiful right now with new foliage. Malibu Creek is full of water. The park was crowded with visitors, especially at the Rock Pools, but few hikers ventured north of Mulholland.
— David Harris
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| Circle X Ranch |
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3/31 |
Despite the recent rains, seeking wildflowers on the Mishi Mokwa Trail was more of a treasure hunt than an immersive experience, but there was treasure worth hunting for. We began the loop at the Mishe Makwa trailhead and, initially, flower sighting were few and insignificant. There was a little bit of California buckwheat, California everlasting, wild cucumber, deerweed and woolly lomatium in the chaparral. On the long descent to Split Rock there were very few flowers to spot, just some greenbark ceanothus and one or two blue dicks. The area beyond Split Rock is where it began to get interesting. Two of the less common ceanothus varieties; hoary leaf ceanothus and white thorn were in very full bloom. They were interspersed with silk tassel bush and a beautiful chaparral currant. Then we began seeing padre's shooting stars, lots of them. This was a surprise because they usually bloom much earlier in the season. But there were many of them growing in large swathes and growing in places where I have not seen them in the past. We also began to see prickly phlox, another flower that usually blooms earlier in the year. We saw a little Eastwood manzanita and that completed our flower observations.
— Dorothy Steinicke
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| Malibu Creek SP |
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3/28 |
| Along crags road between Las Virgenes creek and Malibou Lake - a lot of wild cucumber along with ceanothus megacarpus. Some patches of poppies out west towards Malibou Lake. — TM | ||
| Will Rogers State Historic Park |
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3/23 |
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I wanted to let you know of some flowers I spotted on March 23, 2018 during a hike at Will Rogers State Historic Park. I was on the Inspiration Point Loop Trail and spotted California brittlebrush. This is a California State Park and it is also the eastern terminus of the Backbone Trail, which crosses the Santa Monica Mountains.
From the parking lot just beyond the park gate (bring money for parking), the trail heads up the mountain to the left of the tennis courts west of the ranch house and ranger office. I noticed a very small cluster of the California brittlebrush on an intersection of the trail. At this point, there is the fire road to the left and a narrower trail that leads up on the right. The trail itself was fairly muddy in some areas on this day (day after heavy rain), but it is otherwise easily accessible. — Ana Cholo 
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| Malibu Lagoon State Beach |
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8/2/2017 |
When it is just too hot to hike in the canyons it is good to remember that there are lots of interesting plants growing by the beach, at least some beaches. Malibu Lagoon was recently restored and has a lot of California native plants that you don't see in the hills and canyons. The California fuchsia is coming into bloom and was well attended by hummingbirds. There is alkali heath, bladder pod, wand buckwheat and wild heliotrope as well as other more familiar flowers. There are also a lot of interesting water birds to watch.
— Dorothy Steinicke
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Contact Information:
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Santa Monica Mountains NRA 401 West Hillcrest Drive Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 805-370-2301 www.nps.gov/samo |
If you would like to contribute a wildflower report you can e-mail the editor at: SMMWildFlowers@gmail.com |
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What's Blooming
on the web at
www.smmflowers.org/whatsblooming
or go to
www.nps.gov/samo
click on
"Plan Your Visit" >> "Things to Do" >> "Look for Wildflowers"
