Natural History Wanderings

Santa Monica Mountain National Recreation Area just published a new wildflower report for 5/5/12 

Overall comments

“There has been little to report as the lack of rain in the early spring has kept things pretty barren this year.  The deep dust of a couple of months ago has been knocked down by the recent rains but things are still unusually dry. One indication of the dryness is how little water there is in many of our seasonal creeks.  These creeks are largely spring fed and the lack of water is a result of unusually low water tables. That said, You can find flowers if you go looking for them.  Many things that you would normally find blooming at this time of year can indeed be found, but expect much lower quantities, more restricted distribution, and in some cases dwarfed or otherwise stunted plants. Recent rains have greened things up nicely but we still are not seeing even an average year’s worth of flowers.  Some plants have bounced back well after the rains.  For example, a couple of months ago the black sage was dropping its leaves but now they are looking very lush and flowering nicely. Similarly, the bush monkey flower seems willing to provide a display to make up for all the others missing in action.  However that response to the late rains seems more the exception than the rule.  It is interesting to note that the bigpod ceanothus, normally an early winter bloomer, is trying to re-flowering in some areas. In fact, many of theseceanothus gave up earlier during their “normal” blooming season and aborted all their flower buds before they even opened.  I guess everybody is confused with the strange weather we have been having this year.  Some areas are clearly doing better than others. ”

Zuma Canyon                   Misc. Trails                       4/28/12

We made a loop of it by turning right on the Ocean View Trail connecting to the Canyon View Trail and meeting up with the Zuma Loop Trail.  There was a solid rain earlier in the week so we were hopeful of seeing a lot of flowers in bloom.  The hike was initially disappointing; the two “shoulders” provided the best floral displays.  There are actually a large number of flower species in bloom but only on those shoulders are there great masses of blooming flowers.

Entering the trail there are elder flower, black sage, vervain, bush sunflower, California everlasting and California bee plant.  By the dry creek just before you head up the hill there is a spectacular bush lupine in full flower.  On the climb uphill you are rewarded with lovely ocean views every time you stop to catch your breath. On the way you will also see golden yarrow, sugar bush, deer weed, purple sage, wishbone flower, purple nightshade, morning glory and locoweed.  As you near the top there is sticky monkey flower growing in great abundance interspersed with white yarrow and Indian paintbrush with bunches of blue eyed grass here and there.  Well worth the climb.  Continuing into the area of morning shade in the folds of the canyon there are bush mallow, cliff aster, hedge nettle, big pod ceanothus (so late), Turkish rugging, caterpillar phacelia, canyon sunflower, and popcorn flower. Dipping down into the riparian area there were Indian pinks, fuchsia flowering gooseberry, blue dicks, heart leaf penstemon, scarlet bugler, fiesta flower and virgin’s bower seed pods.  Leaving the creek and taking the loop trail up to the other shoulder of the canyon we saw another display of masses of sticky monkey with lots of blue eyed grass, Indian paintbrush and Catalina mariposa lilies.  A very satisfying hike.  – Dorothy Steinicke

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