Natural History Wanderings

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area has just posted two new wildflower bloom reports on 3/15/12:

Zuma/Trancas Canyons  Backbone Trail Date: 03/10     

NPS Sponsored Backbone Hike number 4: Encinal Road to Latigo Road. This hike passes through several different ecosystems including chaparral, coastal sage scrub, oak woodland and riparian woodland. I was hopeful that the large number of sheltered environments would yield more flowers than Id seen elsewhere but just about everywhere along the trail things were severely dry. As a consequence we did not see very many flowers. All told we saw over 60 different species in bloom, which was a fair number, but most were present in only small numbers and Im including the ever-present “weeds” in this count as well. In a typical year this would only rank as a poor showing, but it seems about par for this year. On the other hand the weather was fabulous, the trail beautiful and well-maintained, and everyone had a great time. Flowering “Highlights” included: black sage, bush monkey flower, quite a bit of deerweed, golden yarrow, three different species of ceanothus, canyon sunflower, a few left-over wild cucumber, purple nightshade, a couple of early chamise, a nice stand of California collarless poppy, hedge nettle, wild morning glory, one Parrys phacelia, quite a bit of wishbone bush, both two-tone and California everlasting, cliff aster, a few woolly blue curls, prickly phlox, a little bit of caterpillar phacelia, some fiddleneck, both bush and bi-color lupine, fiesta flower, a scattering of popcorn flower, blue dicks, both fuchsia-flowered and chaparral gooseberry, milkmaids, Indian warrior, Indian paintbrush, vervain, California figwort, blue larkspur, lace pod, virgins bower, some early crimson pitcher sage, and a few eucrypta.  – ed.

Point Mugu State Park  La Jolla Canyon Trail Date: 03/08        

The eradication of non-native grasses in La Jolla Valley is now completed and the valley has greened up and regained much of the aspect of earlier times.  The tall Harding grass has been cut in the valleys northwestern edges.  You are sure to see wild hyacinth now, and near the pond there is blue-eyed grass.  In the La Jolla Canyon woodland I found hedge nettle blooming, fuchsia-flowered gooseberry, ceanothus, morning glory, bush monkey flower.  I found white nightshade blooming alongside canyon sunflower in several locations.  Woolly paintbrush is appearing, and wishbone bush, California encelia and red-stemmed filaree.  The trumpet-shaped datura blooms show a variety of white and blue hues, fullest at mid-day.  Giant coreopsis “forests” add to the primeval aspect of rugged La Jolla canyon.  There are colonies of star lily and shooting stars in the brushy undergrowth near La Jolla Valley Trail and its intersection with La Jolla Canyon Trail.  The pond area is a good place to find vervain.  The shooting stars are about done.  At this time of year fennel is barely visible, just a pleasant fragrance.  Helicopters are beginning to haunt the interior valleys of Mugu park so its best to pick a windy day if you are seeking to escape city noise.   The park is one of the areas foremost locations to view native plant and animal species. – Alexander Walker.

Read all of their reports at: Wildflowers – Whats Blooming in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.