Natural History Wanderings

Santa Monica Mountains just published a new wildflower report:

 This is just a quick general update for the weekend. While the bigpod ceanothus has largely finished here at Circle X Ranch its blue cousins, greenbark ceanothus and hairy-leaved ceanothus are now taking the stage. Perhaps the rain we got a couple of days ago will allow them to have as fruitful a flowering season as bigpod had. I checked the Canyon View Trail here at Circle X Ranch just before the rain. Its protected south-facing aspect usually gets it going earlier than many other locations. It had a decent variety of plants in flower but most were still quite low in numbers. Perhaps more noteworthy, a number of them had that stunted look they assume when they are drought stressed. That same south-facing aspect can be a liability for its plants in a dry year. Hopefully the rain will revive them.

Follow all of their reports at:  Wildflowers – What’s Blooming in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.