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Page Revised: 01/13/2013 |
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Available Reviews Castro Crest Point Mugu
State Park Circle X Ranch |
Date of Review 01/01/1012. 12/14/11. 12/10/11 &11/26/11. |
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Quick Links: Wildflowers
of the Santa Monica Mountains - Photos of 950 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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This is mostly a quick update to let people
know the bigpod ceanothus
are beginning to bloom up at Circle X Ranch.
The predicted warm weather will probably ramp them up to full bloom
quite quickly. I've been trapped at my
desk since I got back from my trip but hopefully I'll be able to add more soon
once I've had a chance to look around a bit.
Anyone can always help by submitting a flower report. See you on the trails. – ed. |
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Castro Crest |
Backbone
Trail: Corral Canyon
Rd. to Latigo Rd |
Date: 1/1/2012 |
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This hike is
fantastic in the spring and not bad in the winter. The big pod ceanothus
is well into blooming, there is California buckwheat, wild morning glory and
milkmaids by the creek. To my surprise
there were already peonies in bloom.
The other flowers we saw were just small occasional patches. There was some chaparral current, twiggy
wreath plant, purple nightshade, cliff aster, Indian paintbrush, bush
sunflower and cudweed aster.
– Dorothy Steinicke. |
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Point Mugu State Park |
La Jolla Canyon Trail |
Date: 12/14/2011 |
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Surprised to see a
Giant Coreopsis blooming already, probably the season's first, only fifty
yards from the Ray Miller Trailhead in that area where stone blocks are
gathered together. In late afternoon I
noticed an evening primrose had opened, a yellow one, near where I have found
speckled Clarkia last summer. A
Golden-Fleece is still presenting a few blooms. Almost all the flowers I saw today were
yellow. – Alexander Walker. |
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Circle X Ranch |
Sandstone Peak Trail |
Date: 12/10/2011 |
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We hiked to the
peak yesterday with a group who came to hear Ranger Mike’s presentation on the
geology of the area. Along the way we of course watched for and chatted about
flowers. We still are not seeing many of the new season’s annuals in bloom
but there was a nice scattering of chaparral currant and up near the top
there were a few manzanita in bloom. It might be
still too early to recommend this trail for flower watching but the vista of
the ocean and the valley behind was well worth the trip (to say nothing of
Mike’s excellent presentation.) It is worth noting that we saw a few stray
shooting stars in bloom near the Mishe Mokwa trailhead.
– ed. |
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Circle X Ranch |
Canyon View Trail |
Date: 11/26/2011 |
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This trail passes
through several different ecosystems and has several exposed south-facing sections
which ramp up to the blooming season quite fast. Consequently I hike this
trail frequently early in the blooming season when I am most eager to see the
new arrivals. Things have greened up quite nicely and there is a lot of our
old favorites in leaf, but not too much in bloom yet. Some of the early
perennials are in bloom and of course several of last season’s late bloomers
are still around, but we did not see any of the new season’s annuals
yet. California fuchsia, telegraph
weed, woolly aster, wild morning glory, sawtooth
golden bush, wishbone bush, twiggy wreath plant, white hedge nettle,
narrow-leaved bedstraw, chaparral current and bush mallow. – 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 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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