Page Revised: 02/06/09

 

Available Site Reviews

Scenic Drives in SAMO

Point Mugu State Park

Hondo Canyon

Circle X Ranch

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Peter Strauss Ranch

Cold Creek Preserve

Rancho Sierra Vista

Date of Reviews

2/4.

2/2 & 1/9.

1/13.

1/12 & 11/19 & 11/11.

1/10.

1/6.

1/3.

11/6.

Quick Links

What's Blooming Now - Photo highlights of the current flower reports.

Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains - Photos of over 700 species.

Archive - Previous “What's Blooming” reports.

Outdoors - The Calendar of Events for the Santa Monica Mountains NRA.

 

        Still not very much to report.  The cool rainy weather slows down the approach of Spring but at the same time is essential for a good flower display later in the year. A few people have been sending me reports but they pretty much uniformly say there is not much in the way of flowers to look at.  Despite this I’ve been photographing flowers and should be able to fill in a few blanks in the flower gallery sometime in the next few weeks. The Bigpod Ceanothus (which seemed near the end of it’s blooming season up here at CXR) really got beat down with this weekend’s rains.  I’ve yet to have a chance to look around much but hope I can get out for a while tomorrow.  If you see something worth reporting send me a line.  Most of what I have been hearing about is the same few dozen sparsely scattered species (with the exception of the Ceanothus)  although SB’s report about the Coreopsis getting going is another sure sign that Spring is approaching.  See you on the trails.

 

        I’ve made several changes to the layout of the Wildflower website lately and one of them is a new search called What’s Blooming Now.  I will try to keep this up to date with the highlights of the flower sightings people have reported here.

 

        As always, if you have any comments or questions, or wish to file a flower report, you can email me at address at the bottom of this page.

– ed.

 


 

 

SAMO Scenic Drives

 

         Date: early Feb

 

 

        Scenic driving through the mountains:

        Kanan Road, Malibu Canyon Rd and Mulholland Highway -- The frosted shrubs you see everywhere, especially at higher elevations or near the coast, are predominately the white flowers of big pod ceanothus, just occasionally you’ll see a pale blue greenback ceanothus.

        Along Pacific Coast Highway and near the coast on the other roads are lots of bush sunflower (yellow flowers with dark centers), in shaded areas you’ll see canyon sunflowers (yellow flowers with gold centers).

        Also on Pacific Coast Highway, the first Coreopsis (bouquets of yellow daisies with the stalk seeming to grow out of the cliffs or right out of rocky areas) are in bloom from Zuma Beach to Sycamore Canyon campground. From the campground to Mugu Rock blooms grow sparser. From Mugu Rock to Las Posas road, coreopsis stalks and leaves are showing, but no flowers yet.

        Bloom rating for the higher elevations is very good for number of blooms, but just starting for number of species, for PCH bloom is good, but just starting.

– Sheila Braden.

 

Point Mugu State Park

Hidden Pond Trail

         Date: 2/2

 

 

        Not much to report yet. Highlights include Bigpod Ceanothus, Wild Sweet Pea, Bush Sunflower, Wild Cucumber, Purple Nightshade and Prickly Phlox.

– Fred Nuesca.

 

Hondo Canyon

Backbone Trail

         Date: 1/13

 

 

        Backbone Trail, Hondo Canyon - trail head at Old Topanga. Bermuda buttercup (or Oxalis); California polypody; California buttercup; California everlasting; California lace fern; Cliff aster [White aster]; Coastal wood fern [California wood fern]; Coffee fern; Crimson Pitcher Sage [Hummingbird sage]; Dwarf chaparral broom [coyote brush]; Goldback fern; Milkmaids; Mustard, (Mediterranean ?); Purple nightshade; Red-stemmed filaree; White chaparral currant; Wild sweet pea; Wild cucumber; Ceanothus (Hoary leaved Ceanothus ?)

– Sarah Dickey.

 

Circle X Ranch

Misc. Trails

         Date: 1/12

 

 

        I’ve looked at several of the trails recently and we are beginning to see a few of the early annuals just beginning to bloom.  Of the thirty or so different flowers I’ve seen many are individuals who’s siblings are nowhere near flowering yet.  Highlights (not including the standout individuals) include popcorn flower, red stem filaree, an increasing number of bigpod ceanothus, deerweed, California buckwheat, several two-tone everlasting, many wild cucumber, lace pod, some hold-out cudweed aster, purple nightshade, a few of the different celeries, the chaparral current still doing well, bigberry manzanita, wishbone bush, a few shooting stars (but you have to look carefully to find them,) a few dried-up California fuchsia and some nice stands of California bay trees.

        By the way, this is the best time of year to visit Sandstone Peak if you want to see the islands.  I’ve seen the distant San Nicolas and even San Clemente a number of times recently.

– ed.

 

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Calabasas Peak Motorway

         Date: 1/10

 

 

        Calabasas Peak Motorway - Red Rock [fire] Rd. Mustard (Mediterranean?); Cliff aster [White Aster]; Crimson Pitcher Sage [Hummingbird sage]; Dwarf chaparral broom [coyote brush]; Purple nightshade; Red-stemmed filaree; White chaparral currant; Wild cucumber; Wild sweet pea; California peony; Canyon dodder; Downy indian paintbrush; Mule fat; California Prickly phlox; Slender sunflower; Southern tauschia; Sweet alyssum; Popcorn Flower (variety ?); Wishbone plant [Wishbone bush]; Woolly indian paintbrush

– Sarah Dickey.

 

Cheeseboro Canyon

Cheeseboro Canyon Trail

         Date: 1/9

 

 

        Cheeseboro Canyon - Cheeseboro Canyon Trail.  Mustard (Mediterranean?); Purple nightshade; White chaparral currant; Wild cucumber; California peony; Canyon dodder; California Prickly phlox; California Blackberry

– Sarah Dickey.

 

Point Mugu State Park

Backbone Trail

         Date: 1/9

 

 

        This hike is the first of the NPS sponsored Backbone Trail hikes in the 2010 series. We will be hiking from west to east, two sections of the Backbone Trail each month. The section done on this hike began at the coast at the Ray Miller Trailhead, proceeded up the Ray Miller Trail, along the Overlook Fire Road, down the Wood Canyon Trail, then north along the Sycamore Canyon Fire Road to the Danielson multi-use area. It is still too early to see huge numbers of flowers, but including scattered holdouts from last season and a few pioneering individuals ahead of their relatives we saw over thirty different species in bloom.  Only a few of these could really be said to be in bloom right now. Flowering highlights included wild cucumber, bladderpod, wishbone bush, a growing number of early bigpod ceanothus, rattlesnake weed (the low prostrate one), oxalis, deerweed, chaparral current, a very nice prickly phlox, some mostly finished cudweed aster, and one fuchsia-flowered gooseberry.

– ed.

 

Peter Strauss Ranch

Cheeseboro Canyon Trail

         Date: 1/6

 

 

        Mustard (Mediterranean ?); Wild cucumber; California peony; California Prickly phlox; Coastal wood fern [California wood fern]; Coffee fern; Goldback fern; Milkmaids; California Maiden-hair fern; Chickweed; Fiddlenecks (Common)

– Sarah Dickey.

 

Cold Creek Preserve

Stunt High Trail

         Date: 1/3

 

 

        Stunt High Trail (return along Stunt Road)  California polypody; California everlasting; California peony; California sunflower [Bush sunflower]; Cliff aster (White Aster); Coastal wood fern [California wood fern]; Coffee fern; Cream bush; Goldback fern; Greenbark ceanothus; Hairy-leaved ceanothus; Lupines; Mustard (Mediterranean ?); Milkmaids; Purple nightshade; Red monardella ; Red-stemmed filaree; Wild cucumber; Wild sweet pea; Wishbone plant [Wishbone bush]

– Sarah Dickey.

 


 

Contact Information:

 

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area

 

401 West Hillcrest Drive
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

 

805-370-2301

www.nps.gov/samo

If you would like to contribute to the wildflower report:

 

e-mail:
Tony_Valois@partner.nps.gov

 

or phone Tony at 310-457-6408

What’s Blooming

on the web at

 www.researchlearningcenter.com/bloom

or go to

www.nps.gov/samo and click on “What’s Blooming”