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Page Revised: 12/14/05 |
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Available Sites Point Mugu State Park |
Date of Review 12/10/05 |
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What's Blooming photo
gallery: www.nps.gov/samo/bloom/bloom.htm |
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Point Mugu State Park |
Backbone trail: Ray
Miller to Danielson Multi-use |
Date: 12/10/05 |
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Each
month between December and June the National Park Service (NPS) escorts
hikers on sequential segments of the Backbone Trail Hike (BBT). Car and van shuttles facilitate the logistics. The hikers are chosen in November. If you're interested in participating in
next year's walk contact the NPS Visitors Center, 805-370-2301.
Perfect weather accompanied the lead segment of this year's NPS BBT
hike. Unending views of the Channel Islands,
dramatic clouds and far off interior mountain ranges literally placed us in
the middle of wide open spaces. The
area is still very dry. Plants greened
up with the October precipitation, but they aren't yet willing to risk their
future generations on our unpredictable weather. Blooms are just around the corner if the
elements would only cooperate.
Climbing out of La Jolla Canyon's Riparian environment, the hills of
Coastal Sage Scrub held limited species offerings. Sometimes just a single flower was all one
could enjoy. As we descended back into
the Riparian floor of Sycamore Canyon the gold, yellow and greens of the
canyon's namesake tree were glorious.
Some of the perennial shrub species are holding a good bloom quite
well, but you'll have to be patient for the burst of color. Blooms are either fall holdovers or
winter's early arrivals, mixed in with some ubiquitous exotics. As we walked we noted: mule fat, coyote
bush, lemonade berry, ashy leaf buckwheat, bladderpod, deerweed, wand chicory,
black mustard, big-pod ceanothus, chaparral currant, squaw spurge, and four
o'clock. Also enjoyed were: sugar
bush, purple nightshade, cliff-aster, prickly phlox, gum plant, woolly aster,
California fuchsia, wand buckwheat, chamise; greasewood, tree tobacco, and
telegraph weed (RW) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Circle X Ranch |
All trails |
Date: 11/24/05 |
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While there have been few changes in
the flowers at CXR since the last What's Blooming report, there have been
significant changes in hiking experience itself. The new section of the
backbone trail below Triunfo Peak has been recently repaired and is now in
excellent condition. The two good rains have knocked down the dust and
cleaned up the vegetation and left us with fresher air. Many small green
plants have made their appearance along the trails and indeed, some of the
trails are now covered with green grass. The generally clearer skies are providing
better views of distant vistas such as the Angeles mountains and the Channel
islands. And, of course, the weather is now much cooler. A few new winter flowers are
beginning to make their appearance, but overall we have actually lost ground
since the last report as many of the late-summer bloomers have essentially
disappeared. For example, the entire six-mile loop of the Mishe Mokwa trail yielded only about a dozen
different flower species and half of these were lightly represented.
Highlights included woolly aster, twiggy wreath plant, Tejon milk-aster,
cliff aster, chaparral current, California fuchsia, bush senecio, and
California sagebrush. Elsewhere at CXR we’ve seen annual paintbrush,
white hedge nettle, willow herb, sugar bush, bigberry manzanita, deerweed,
rock rose, bleeding heart, golden yarrow, canyon sunflower, coyote brush,
mule fat, scarlet pimpernel, tree tobacco, telegraph weed, bush mallow,
two-tone everlasting, felt-leaf everlasting, California laurel, California
buckwheat, ashy leaf buckwheat, wand buckwheat, and both white and purple
nightshade. Again, many of these are only very lightly represented. (TV) |
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Naturalist's rating: Poor |
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Upper Zuma Canyon and
Circle X Ranch |
Backbone Trail |
Date: 11/20/05 |
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Each November the Sierra Club plans a
series of hikes to celebrate the Backbone Trail. This hike was one of this
year’s series and began at the Kanan Road trailhead and ended at the
Mishe Mokwa trailhead, a distance of 14 miles. The flowers were generally
few, but there were some surprises, probably due to a recent period of very
warm weather. Twenty eight species were noted as well as a very large crop of
red Toyon berries. Starting out on the Upper Zuma Section were the usual
Cliff Aster, Black Mustard, Woolly Aster, Telegraph Weed, Twiggy Wreath Plant
and an occasional California Fuchsia. Mule Fat and Sugar Bush are blooming
along with widely scattered Bush Mallow. Looking upstream from the first
bridge is a large stand of Snow Berries with their pure white berries. A
single Bicolor Everlasting and a few Chicory were noted. After the bridge and
a short up-hill section, is an area where the Common Madia appears in the
summer and one greeted us today. Just after crossing Encinal Canyon
Road and starting up the latest section of the Backbone Trail to be
completed, we came to a warm area with almost a spring-like flower display.
There were Purple Night Shade, Coyote Brush, Deer Weed, Greenbark Ceanothus,
Canyon Sunflower, Slender Sunflower, Morning Glory, Tree Tobacco, and Scarlet
Pimpernel blooming. We had been seeing the leafing out of
the Chaparral Currant along way, but it was not until we got to the highest
point as the Backbone Trail winds around Triunfo Peak that we saw the early
flowers. Bleeding Heart is sprouting there and one plant had flowers. There
were several Bigberry Manzanita blooming there as well. (BE) |
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Naturalist's rating: Generally Poor. |
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Topanga State Park |
Santa Ynez Canyon Trail |
Date: 10/5/05 |
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This is a wonderful hike. It is cool here on even the hottest
days. There is still a lot of water in
the creek, a testament to our record breaking rain year. I went without much expectation of flowers,
and so, was pleasantly surprised.
There is more California fuchsia than anything else. Little patches of cudweed aster and cliff
aster and California buckwheat. I was
surprised to find several patches of Indian pinks, by the book they should
have finished months ago. There are
several scarlet monkey flowers blooming in the creek and I saw a single wild
rose. There were many places where
deer have rubbed their antlers, many California sister butterflies and lots
of tadpoles and froglets in the creek. Not the spectacular flowers of spring but a
wonderful place to be outdoors on a hot day.
(DS) |
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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: Burt
Elliot Ralph Waycott |
If you
would like to contribute to the wildflower report: e-mail: or phone Tony
at 310-457-6408 |
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