Natural History Wanderings

Santa Monica Mountain National Recreation Area just published a new wildflower report for 5/19/11.  They state:

 “Lately things have been very lush with many of the perennials looking good to excellent but this remains about the worst year I’ve ever seen for some of the early annuals.  On the other hand most of them can still be found if you are willing to look, just not in the dramatic eye-popping displays of some of the recent past.  There are signs that the season for the “later” annuals will be better since our rain was more consistent later in the season.  On that  note, we are now beginning to see some of the later season flowers.  One that is always symbolic to me was my first encounter of “Farewell-to-Spring” a few weeks ago.”

 There are new postings for the Santa Ynez Canyon in Topanga Canyon Park, the Trail behind the Train Depot at Paramont Ranch and Cistern Trail at Manlibu Creek State Park Below are the reports:

 Topanaga Canyon State Park     Santa Ynex Canyon     5/19/2011

Entering on the Palisades side, trailhead at the end of Vereda de la Montura St. which branches off of Palisades Drive.

This is one of my favorite hikes.  The creekside area is always green and shady.  Be aware that a lot of the green is poison oak, long pants and long sleeves are a good idea.

This canyon is a gem in the summer time.  It gets a lot of summer flowers after the hillsides have dried up.  It is not quite there yet but there is still a lot of water in the creek and a lot of flowers in bloom.  Upon entering the trail flowering black sage, canyon sunflower and hedge nettle were immediately visible.  As I walked along I saw blackberry flowers, purple nightshade, sticky monkey flower, wild rose, deer weed, bush lupine, honeysuckle, lance leaf dudleya, sweet pea and wild morning glory in bloom.  The cream bush, which is one of the special flowers on this hike, is just getting started.  I really went on this trail to look at the chaparral portion that heads of the mountain to Trippett Ranch.  May often has spectacular flowers in this section.  Not this time.  There are flowers worth going to see, but not the abundance that is often there.  There are the usual chaparral flowers; yucca, golden yarrow, yellow pin cushion, chamise, Turkish rugging, California buckwheat and owl’s clover.  There are only a few specimens of the more exciting flowers that often occur here; white snapdragon, scarlet larkspur, golden star lilies and globe gilia.  The scarlet larkspur looked as though it had been browsed by deer.  There were a lot of butterflies; checkerspots, California sisters, mourning cloaks, swallowtails and a lot of little blues.  – Dorothy Steinicke

Paramount Ranch     Trail behind the Train Depot     05/19/11

I often don’t think of  Paramount Ranch as a good hiking spot for sighting flowers, but this trail had quite an abundance of flowers.  It would be a great trail to take a family with younger children as the trail is short (about an hour) and the western town is fun and there are bathrooms.  Go through the western town to the train depot.  The trail is to the right and goes up a small hill.  Yarrow lined almost the entire trail with sprinklings of elegant clarkia and woolly blue curls.  The yellow and purple combination was quite appealing.  Other notable plants include:  golden current in berry, abundant black mustard, tocalote, red stemmed filaree, Italian thistle and milk thistle, mint leaf verbena, a very large horehound bush, caterpillar phacelia, perezia, purple clarkia, elderberry, chamise, buckwheat, a nice large patch of foothill penstemon, quite a few yuccas up the hillside, owl’s clover, slender sunflower, purple nightshade, purple sage, golden stars, mountain dandelion, spring vetch, pineapple plant, and fiddleneck.  There is a short trail off to the left of the main trail which leads to a secluded picnic bench.  We also saw a baby rattlesnake slithering across the road and a horned lizard hiding in a bush.– Fred and Nellie

Malibu Cree State Park      Cistern Trail     5/18/11

There are some nice blooms on the Cistern trail in Malibu Creek State Park.  The trailhead is located about 1.6 miles west of Las Virgenes Road on Mulholland Highway, on the south side of the street.  The trail is not signed, but there is a “no bikes” sign at the trailhead.  There is a colony of Matilija Poppies near the beginning of the trail.  I also saw California Buckwheat, Golden Yarrow, Black and Purple Sage,  Deerweed. Purple Nightshade, Canyon Sunflower, Sticky Monkeyflower, Woolly Bluecurls, Indian Paintbrush, Scarlet Pimpernel,  and Vervain.  Continuing west on the canyon bottom and turning right on the Cage Creek trail there are some annuals blooming; Elegant Clarkia, Caterpillar Phacelia, and at the junction of the Cage Creek trail and the Lookout Trail there is some Specked Clarkia.  Further on up the Lookout Trail there is White Popcorn Flower and Goldenstar.  The hike that I am describing is a 2 and 1/2 mile loop: Take  the Cistern Trail down to the canyon bottom and turn right,  right on the Cage Creek trail, and right on the Lookout Trail which takes you back to  the Cistern Trail.  – Jim Garafalo

Go to their website to see all of their reports: http://www.researchlearningcenter.org/bloom/