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Page Revised: 8/06/06 |
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Available Sites Topanga State Park |
Date of Review 8/5/06 & 7/17/06. |
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What's Blooming photo gallery: www.nps.gov/samo/bloom/bloom.htm |
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Topanga State Park |
Los Liones Trail |
Date: 8/5/06 |
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This trail is largely shaded and has
ocean breezes so it can be a nice hike even on a hot day. I went expecting to find almost nothing in
bloom and so was pleasantly surprised to find a medium amount of blooming
plants. California and ashy leaf
buckwheat are both in bloom as is black sage, laurel sumac, California
everlasting, hedge nettle, chamise, slender tarweed, vervain, sticky monkey
flower, elder, cliff aster, morning glory, toyon, virgin's bower, and heart
leaf penstemon. There is also mountain
mahogany, honey suckle, golden yarrow, Indian pinks and twiggy wreath plant. (DS) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Circle X Ranch |
Grotto Trail |
Date: 8/5/06 |
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The heat of early summer has pushed us
deeply into the dry months of summer. Although we looked carefully we really
could not find any sign of spring’s flowers, even under the shelter of
the oaks along the creek. We encountered less than three dozen different
flowers in bloom and none in great quantity, except perhaps for the shrub
redshank which has been blooming for the last week or so. This is time of
year when the focus of our hikes is on the beauty of the trail and landscape
itself. For example, the shady oak grove near the Grotto becomes a lot more
attractive as it gets hotter. The creek bed is dry now but the pools still
have plenty of water in them and the tadpoles and newts are a delight for
children. The huge live oaks and sycamores near the Grotto provide shelter
for a myriad of singing birds. Flower highlights are few but include
a good display scarlet monkey flower, California buckwheat, some heart-leaved
penstemon, a bit of leather root, bush mallow, bird’s beak, twiggy
wreath plant, cliff aster, the uncommon Tejon milk-aster, chalk dudleya,
slender tarweed, California everlasting, a little toyon, narrow leaved
milkweed, and California fuchsia. The hike itself was quite enjoyable but the
flowers were only just barely fair.
(TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Cheeseboro/Palo Comado
Cyns & MRCA Upper Las Virgenes Cyn Open Space |
Various Trails |
Date: 7/27/06 |
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The high heat we’ve had over
the last few weeks has pushed us deeply into the summer season and prematurely
dried up many flowers. In addition, these units are farther from the cooling
effect of the coast than most in the Santa Monica Mountains and consequently
have suffered more. You can always find holdouts in sheltered areas under
trees and by water sources but even these areas seem to be yielding paltry
rewards this year. We spent three days hiking and driving through various
parts of these units as part of a Park Service vegetation survey and found
very few flowers doing well now except for those adapted to deep summer
blooming. Even these seem more dried up than usual so the flower count was
quite low. Daytime hiking in the recent heat requires special care. I have
been hiking with well over a gallon of water (generally ten or twelve pints)
and have yet to have any left at the end of a long hike. Be aware that much
of this unit was burned in last fall's fires and has not been fully reopened
for visitor use. Be sure to read all posted signs to avoid entering closed
areas. Some of the burned areas are especially fragile right now. The only flowers doing OK at this
time (excluding weedy non-natives) included twiggy wreath plant, Spanish
clover, prickly lettuce, narrow-leaved milkweed, California buckwheat,
California fuchsia, mugwort, turkey mullein, canchalagua, slender sunflower,
and bush mallow, None of these were encountered in great number and some were
found only in remote sheltered areas not easily accessible by the public. In
addition, the casual observer might overlook some of these because of their
small blossoms and “weedy” appearance. Some flowers still blooming but which
seemed to be on their last legs included deerweed, golden yarrow, a few
hold-out perezia, cliff aster, horehound, a few mostly dried up scarlet
larkspur, slender tarweed, some sad looking bush monkey flower, downy monkey
flower, California everlasting, wand mullein, sapphire wool stars, hooked
navarretia, wild morning glory, golden prince’s plume, fleabane aster,
a few white pincushion, and Indian pink. Overall a very poor showing for
three days of hiking. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Rancho Sierra Vista |
Wendy and Satwiwa Loop trails |
Date: 7/23/06 |
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I hiked the Wendy and Satwiwa Loop trails
on July 23rd, thinking it wouldn't be too hot at 8am but by 9am it was
already 95 degrees. Poor rating for
there were few flowers with many drying up.
I saw wild rose, bush mallow, slender tarweed, cliff aster, milkweed,
laurel sumac, mustard, wild radish, sweet fennel and one last poppy. Rabbits were abundant. I came across a beautiful 2 foot
rattlesnake. (KJ) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Point Dume Nature Preserve |
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Date: 7/21/06 |
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This lovely area reached from Dume
Drive is beautiful in any season with cool breezes and long ocean views. A lot of work has been done to remove
non-native vegetation, especially ice plant.
The result has been a splendid blossoming of unusual native coastal
strand flowers. But this is not their
best season. There are collarless
poppies, dudleya, beach evening primrose, telegraph weed and prickly pear in
bloom. But really not even very much
of any of these. (DS) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Charmlee Park |
Musch Trail |
Date: 7/21/06 |
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One of the special flowers of this
park is the Santa Susana tarweed and it's right there next to the parking
lot. It's busier and more aromatic than
it more common cousin the slender tarweed.
I was concerned that this might be an unbearably hot hike in July but,
at least on the day we went, the proximity to the ocean gave us some cool
breezes. Most flowers here are scant and past
their prime. These include; California
everlasting, golden yarrow, slender tarweed, sticky monkey flower, bush
mallow, purple sage, humming bird sage, morning glory, white yarrow, canyon
sunflower, caterpillar phacelia, purple clarkia, black sage and
deerweed. There were some surprises. The California fuchsia is already starting
as is the wedge leaf horkelia. There
is turkey mullein and narrow leaf milkweed.
The Indian paintbrush seems to be going strong. (DS) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Topanga State Park |
Musch Trail |
Date: 7/17/06 |
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I was on the Musch Trail in early
morning and there are still some displays of everlasting and buckwheat, but things
are drying up fast. There is heart-leaved penstemon, a little notable
penstemon, perezia, scarlet larkspur, slender tarweed, and bush mallow. (LH) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Cold Creek Preserve |
Stunt High Trail |
Date: 7/17/06 |
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The predominant flower on the
riparian portion of this trail is bush mallow. There is also heart leaf penstemon, slender
tarweed, cliff aster as well as the occasional elegant clarkia and golden yarrow
and little patches of Indian pinks here and there. Leather root is blooming at the edge of the
creek and scarlet monkey flower in the creek.
The chaparral portion of the trail has suffered some overzealous trail
maintenance which has wiped out most of the trailside flowers. There is honeysuckle, toyon, wild rose,
purple sage, narrow leaf milkweed, scarlet bugler, gumplant, purple clarkia
and scarlet larkspur, but not much of any of them. (DS) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Pt. Mugu State Park |
Thornhill Broome Beach |
Date: 7/17/06 |
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The beach can be a lovely place for a
walk, especially when temperatures in the hills and valleys are hovering in the
high 90s and low 100s. There is not a lot of shade but the air is cooler and
the sound of the surf can be very relaxing. In addition, for flower watchers
the blooms encountered there are often very different from elsewhere. This
environment is actually very harsh and consequently the variety of plant
species is often quite low. As you move away from the surf the plant
diversity quickly climbs and sometimes in a matter of a couple hundred yards
you are in a completely different ecosystem. I confined my walk to the loose
sands between the beach and the coastal sage scrub that starts almost
immediately as you move inland. This is the so-called coastal strand
ecosystem which has become increasingly scarce since this habitat has been a
prime target for housing development and is otherwise easily damaged by
trampling beach-goers. When I come here I always look for the beach morning
glory growing here but have yet to see it in bloom. Oh well, maybe next time. A listing of highlights in this type
of site become almost a complete listing of all the plants encountered.
However, if we exclude the ever-present weedy aliens, the highlights include
beach evening primrose, pink sand verbena, sea rocket, and silver beach-bur.
Including the sage scrub that is quite visible to the north of the beach we
can add prickly pear, yucca, laurel sumac, twiggy wreath plant, both
California and ashy leaf buckwheat, telegraph weed, both lance-leaf and caulk
dudleya, prostrate spurge, bush mallow, tree tobacco, cliff aster, a single
little white nightshade, and elderberry. This is a pretty good showing for
this ecosystem even though we only saw about two dozen different plants in
bloom. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Castro Crest region |
Backbone Trail between Latigo and Corral |
Date: 7/16/06 |
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Backbone Trail from Latigo Rd.
trailhead east to Corral Canyon Rd. trailhead. We also included a short jaunt
up the Castro Peak motorway to Bulldog road. Many of the spring flowers have dried
up for the season although a few can still be found scattered about in the
shade if one looks carefully. This is a good hike for the warmer months of
summer as quite a bit of it is shaded. The cooler and wetter areas associated
with the oak woodland and riparian ecosystems allow spring plants to hold on
longer than in drier and hotter ecosystems. However, these same conditions
also allow poison oak to thrive, and
while most of the trail is wide enough to make it easy to stay out of the
foliage there are a couple of places where the trail is both narrow and the
oak is right at the trail’s edge. The middle and east end sections take
you up into the drier chaparral and sage scrub ecosystems which provides a
larger variety of plants over the length of this portion of the backbone
trail. The relatively low density of flowers we saw might have dropped this
trail’s rating down to poor at the height of the blooming season, but
this is a decent showing for the summer months. There are a lot of
similarities between this section of the Backbone trail and the one reported
on 7-14-06 below. Although there are fewer total flowers there is some
compensation in that there are some rather unusual ones. One additional thing
worth mentioning, this section of the trail includes the site of a modest
burn from last fall near the Corral Canyon trailhead. While the spectacular
flower display reported earlier for this burn has mostly finished for the
season it is still an interesting place to visit in its own right. Some of the flowering highlights
include toyon, chamise, bush mallow, laurel sumac, woolly blue curls, some
black sage, a bit of purple sage, heart-leaved penstemon, scarlet bugler,
fleabane aster, an early woolly aster, cliff aster, bush monkey flower,
slender sunflower, bush sunflower, scarlet larkspur, twiggy wreath plant,
Plummer’s mariposa lily, a single Humboldt lily, golden yarrow, a fair
amount of California wild rose, chaparral honeysuckle, California fuchsia,
perezia, narrow-leaved milkweed, annual paintbrush, a good bit of
canchalagua, bird’s beak, Indian pink, California buckwheat, Spanish
clover, wild morning glory, white pincushion, large-flowered phacelia, a lone
soap plant, Santa Susana tarweed, perennial wool star, Dolores champion, and
hawkweed. All told about seventy different plant species in bloom. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Fair |
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Circle X Ranch |
Mishe Mokwa loop trail And Sandstone Peak |
Date: 7/15/06 |
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Essentially all of the spring flowers
have dried up although a few can still be found scattered about under the
oaks and by the creek if one looks carefully. Even the perennial shrubs which
were blooming well in June have mostly given up thanks the heat we’ve
had over the last few weeks. The dry upper sections of this trail pass
through sage scrub and chaparral and are almost devoid of flowers. This is
especially true of the sandstone peak trail which is famous for its grand
panoramas. Indeed, most of the flowers we encountered were scattered about in
rather low numbers and several in the overall species count were based on a
single dried-up specimen. Some sections of this trail provide a bit of shade,
but once you get up toward the ridges there is not much relief from the sun.
On a hot day I’ll carry almost a gallon of water to do this loop. The
creek at split rock still has water in it and makes the picnic table in the
shade under the oaks a very pleasant for lunch. This is also an area were you
can still find a few of the spring flowers hiding out from the heat. There
are a couple of places where poison oak hangs out over the trail (notably
near split rock) and you really have to be on the watch and be able to identify it by sight to avoid getting into
it. It’s hard to talk about flower
highlights when there are so few, but they would include linanthus, slender
tarweed, chamise, chaparral honeysuckle, Fish's milkwort, cobweb thistle,
bush mallow, a couple of rose snapdragons, bird’s beak, toyon, twiggy
wreath plant, the very fragrant pitcher sage, heart-leaved penstemon, chalk
dudleya, Spanish clover, California fuchsia, turkey mullein, scarlet monkey
flower, bush monkey flower, golden yarrow, Tejon milk-aster, and California
buckwheat. Fewer than forty different plant species in bloom. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Upper Zuma Canyon |
Backbone Trail between Kanan and Mulholland |
Date: 7/14/06 |
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Backbone Trail from Kanan Rd.
Trailhead west to Mulholland Rd. Many of the spring flowers have dried
up for the season although a few can still be found scattered about in the shade
if one looks carefully. This is a good hike for the warmer months of summer
as quite a bit of it is shaded. The cooler and wetter areas associated with
the oak woodland and riparian ecosystems allow spring plants to hold on
longer than in drier and hotter ecosystems. However, same conditions also
allow poison oak to thrive, and while
most of the trail is wide enough to make it easy to stay out of the foliage
there are a couple of places where the trail is narrow and the oak is right
at the trail’s edge. The west end also passes through the drier
chaparral and sage scrub ecosystems providing for a larger variety of plants
over the length of this section of the Backbone trail. The relatively low
density of flowers we saw might have dropped this trail’s rating down
to fair at the height of the blooming season, but this is a pretty good
showing for the summer months. Some of the flowering highlights
include toyon, laurel sumac, heart-leaved penstemon, chalk dudleya, chamise,
cliff aster, elegant clarkia, hedge nettle, bush monkey flower, branching
phacelia, slender sunflower, bush mallow, scarlet larkspur, twiggy wreath
plant, Plummer’s mariposa lily, golden yarrow, common madia, California
wild rose, cream bush, checker bloom, snow berry, coffee berry, Fish’s
milkwort, chaparral honeysuckle, perezia, bird’s beak, hillside
penstemon, Indian pink, woolly blue curls, California buckwheat, wild morning
glory, and narrow-leaved milkweed. All told about sixty different plant
species in bloom. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Good |
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Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area 401 West
Hillcrest Drive 805-370-2301 |
Thank
you for your
contributions: Bonnie Clarfield |
If you
would like to contribute to the wildflower report: e-mail: or phone
Tony at 310-457-6408 |
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