Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Logo

Updated Feb 12
Available Reviews
Circle X Ranch
Date of Review
2/8.

Quick Links:
Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains - Photos of 1000 SMM plants.
Archive - Previous “What's Blooming” reports.
Outdoors - The Calendar of Events for the Santa Monica Mountains NRA.
Wildflowers Facebook - A place where people can share about flowers.
SMM WildFlowers - The Park's popular wildflower app for the iPhone/iPad.

         The drought in Southern California continues. My last report of the 2013 season was in May where I generally continue to post them well into the fall. Things were so dry that most of my regular reporters just gave up and stopped sending me reports. I must admit I did not feel inclined to report on how miserable the flower display was. 2013 was the driest year on record in California, and our area was among the hardest hit. Unfortunately the drought is even worse so far this year (at least for SoCal.) The Park's scientists are watching the effects of this carefully. It is sad to see large old trees dying knowing that they have survived tough times in the past but are really being put to the test this year. Unfortunately the dribble of rain we got last weekend will be of little help unless we get more soon. The hikes I have done recently show only a handful of species in bloom and none in any significant quantity. Further, those blooming generally look stressed or stunted. Sad times for flower watchers.  ‑ ed.





Circle X Ranch
Backbone Trail
02/12/14
         Today’s hike was the third leg of the 2014 National Park Service Backbone Trail Hike. We are hiking west to east covering about two segments per month. Today we hiked from the Mishe Mokwa trailhead at Circle X Ranch to Encinal Road. The effects of the drought continue to be very evident. Our list of flowers is very short and most of these were very sparse. Deer weed, slender sunflower, coyote bush, telegraph weed, mule fat, wild cucumber, chaparral currant, California everlasting, felt-leaf everlasting.  ‑ Ralph and others 




Contact Information:

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:
Tony[underscore]Valois@nps.gov
or phone Tony at the CXR office 310-457-6408



What's Blooming
on the web at
www.smmflowers.org/whatsblooming

or go to

www.nps.gov/samo
click on "Things to Do"
and "Look for Wildflowers"


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