Natural History Wanderings

Santa Monica Mountain National Recreation Area just published  new wildflower reports for 6/25/11/11.  They have new postings for the Canyon View Trail at Circle X Ranch and Rocky Oaks.  Below are the reports:

Circle X Ranch     Canyon View Trail     Date: 06/24/2011

  “Things have definitely begun to dry out now, although this trail, with its south aspect, dries out early anyway. It is one of the first to start flowering nicely in the spring and one of the first to enter summer. Except for some scattered holdouts most of the flowers in this list tell us summer is just around the corner. In addition most of the flower reported here were present in only modest numbers, much less than just a few weeks ago. Highlights include elegant clarkia, a few greenbark ceanothus, several Plummer’s mariposa lily, perezia, slender tarweed, bird’s beak, annual paintbrush, bush monkey flower, creek monkey flower, Spanish clover Turkish rugging, black sage, golden yarrow, morning glory, California wild rose, heart-leaved penstemon, California buckwheat, both chalk and lance-leaved dudleyas, several nice stands of scarlet larkspur, chamise, yucca, bush mallow, woolly blue curls, laurel sumac, California chicory, and deerweed. All told about 35 species in bloom. Except for the larkspur and the lilies not too much to brag about.”  – ed.

Rocky Oaks     Misc. Trails     Date 6/21/11

“We started at the parking lot, hiked over to the pond and stopped to watch the coots and their chicks forage in the tule. From there we went north and picked up the Rock Oaks Loop Trail, which was in very good condition as it was just recently groomed. After circling around and returning to the pond we decided to loop around again, this time on the Glade Trail before returning to the parking lot. Rocky Oaks has a pretty heavy burden of non-native weeds but still can provide a decent showing of wildflowers in some areas. Flowering highlights included golden yarrow, California buckwheat, black sage, deerweed, several nice stands of hillside penstemon, yucca, loosestrife, purple nightshade, slender tarweed, Turkish rugging, a few hoary-leaved ceanothus, bush mallow, woolly blue curls, golden stars, a few scarlet larkspur (with more to come,) California everlasting, Spanish clover, chicory, water smartweed, the attractive native cobweb thistle, bird’s beak, purple clarkia, a few blue-eyed grass, slender sunflower, and a couple of chamise holding onto their last blossoms. All told about 45 species in bloom. Without the pond I’d probably not visit this site very often.”  – ed.

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