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Page Revised: 6/27/08 |
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Available Site Reviews Circle X Ranch Point Mugu State Park Topanga State park |
Date of Review 6/26, 5/16. 6/23. 6/15. |
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What's Blooming photo gallery: http://www.researchlearningcenter.com/bloom/bloom.htm |
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After our recent heat most of the spring’s flowers have finished
for the year except in the more sheltered nooks and crannies. The heat also makes these
same sheltered areas, often with groves of trees, a more pleasurable hike. The
flower hunt may now be more of a challenge but also more rewarding when some elusive
treasure is found. Indeed, many of the summer flowers, like the lilies and
larkspurs, are quite spectacular even if not found in great numbers. Summer is
also a time to inspect the many different forms that fruit and seed capsules can
take, some of which are quite interesting if not beautiful in their own right.
By the way, don’t forget that you dog is much less able to deal with
the heat than we are. Every year people kill their dog on our hot summer
trails, and I do mean literally kill
them dead. –ed. |
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Circle X Ranch |
Grotto and Canyon View Trails. |
Date: 6/26 |
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We did a quick scope of the upper
Grotto Trail and the lower portion of the Canyon View Trail and discovered about
forty different flowers in bloom. Some of the highlights include the
California fuschia (which is just beginning), both the lance-leaf and chalk Dudleyas,
three different monkey flowers, scarlet larkspur, heart-leaved penstemon, a
couple of different clarkia’s, bush mallow, narrow-leaved milkweed,
bird’s beak, morning glory, Plummer’s mariposa lily, Toyon, Perezia,
white pincushion, twiggy wreath plant, a pretty spectacular display of dodder in
full bloom, and even a few Yuccas still looking quite nice. –ed. |
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Point Mugu State Park |
Upper Sycamore Canyon Trail |
Date: 6/23 |
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The
flower display is rapidly diminishing with the very hot weather of the past
week. The excitement this morning was a stunted Humboldt lily (my first of
the year) and several Chalk live-forevers with
their lantern-like flowers. Also impressive was a hillside of decomposing
shale with a pretty grouping of Scarlet larkspur. There also was a large dark rattlesnake
across the trail with an impressive array of rattles. The tongue kept curling
in my direction as I stood stationary. I made a slight noise and the snake
turned and left the trail. Enough excitement to make the hike well worth
while. (Burt Elliott) |
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Topanga State Park |
Backbone Trail |
Dates: 6/14 & 6/15 |
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This is a flower report on the tenth
and last segment of the 2007-2008 Backbone Trail NPS hike series. We hiked
one part of the Backbone trail each month, repeating the hike with different
groups on Saturday and Sunday. Our hike was from Trippet Ranch to Will Rogers
State Historic Park; 11 miles. We noted about 40 species in bloom.
Trails leaving Trippet and passing through Musch Camp to Eagle Springs
Junction have the greatest variety of flowers passing through open and
canopied areas. The most numerous flowers are on Black sage, Heart-leaved
penstemon, Indian pink, Bush Monkey flower, and Bush mallow. I missed the
first Scarlet larkspur, but then there were several hanging right over the
trail at eye level. Just before the Junction we found several White
snapdragons still blooming. Plummer’s Mariposa Lilies were out,
scattered along our entire route. The open areas of this part of the
mountains always have a great show of California buckwheat and Dodder. One
species of Dodder prefers Laurel sumac as host and we saw small white flowers
on that Dodder. Another Dodder prefers buckwheat, but the profusion of
buckwheat flowers makes it difficult to see if this Dodder is blooming.
Toyon, Laurel Sumac and Elderberry are heavy with blossoms. There was no
mistaking the Redberry with a great crop of berries. (Greg Sweel and Burt Elliott) |
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Circle X Ranch |
Mishe Mokwa to split rock. |
Date: 5/16 |
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The day was hot and sunny but this
section of the Mishe Mokwa loop has enough shade on it that you get some
respite from the heat. We spent more
time in the cool air at Split Rock enjoying the shade and the trickle of
water than we did a month ago. The
flower have dried up quite a lot in the recent heat. Although the total
numbers were significantly down compared to even just a few weeks ago the
species count was still respectable at close to sixty, Many that we did see were holding on only
in the more shady and sheltered areas so you will need to look carefully to
see that many. On the other hand, some
of the dramatic summer flowers, like the yellow mariposa lily, are beginning
to show up, Flowering highlights
included the yucca, Catalina mariposa lily, flax flowered linanthus, sapphire
wool stars, golden yarrow, Turkish rugging, both white and yellow
pincushions, soap plant, wooly blue curls, bush mallow, bird’s beak,
golden stars, speckled clarkia, willow-herb clarkia, collarless California
poppy, blue dicks, caterpillar phacelia, large-flowered phacelia, yellow and
bush monkey flowers, lance-leaf dudleya, pitcher sage, star lily,
heart-leaved penstemon, sticky cinquefoil, Chinese houses, peninsular onion,
wild sweet pea, snowberry, blue larkspur, globe gilia, and the large fluffy
seed heads of the virgins bower.
–ed. |
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Rating: Fair. |
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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: e-mail: or phone
Tony at 310-457-6408 |
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