From a New Year's morning run on the Garapito Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains, near Los Angeles.

Some related posts: Deadly Nightshade, Douglas' Nightshade

The view above is of crags in the Circle X area and the Channel Islands from the Etz Meloy section of the Backbone Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains.

From today's out and back run on the Backbone Trail from Kanan Road to a viewpoint on Etz Meloy Mtwy fire road. The fire road continues west about a mile and links to the Yerba Buena segment of the Backbone Trail.

The segment between Kanan Road and Yerba Buena Road includes the two remaining gaps in the Backbone Trail -- the 0.1 mile Etz Meloy gap and the 0.4 mile Upper Trancas gap.

Here are a few additional photographs from the run:

Etz Meloy Motorway

Chaparral Currant

Oak Grove

This bumblebee is doing its best to hold on and squeeze far enough into a Turricula blossom to slurp some nectar.

Other than rabbitbrush, there are not many food choices for bees in the Southern California mountains in the Fall, so they have to take advantage of what can be found.

Not much Turricula (Poodle-dog bush) is blooming either, but it has been such a prolific fire-follower that here and there a plant is in flower.

From Sunday's Ten Miles - Four Peaks run in the San Gabriel Mountains.

The two most showy wildflowers we saw on our run in the Marin Headlands last weekend were montbretia (above) and belladonna lily. Both are escapees from cultivation that originated from the Cape of South Africa.

Montbretia (Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora) is a garden hybrid developed in France in 1879 from two South African species. In California it is most commonly found along the coast from Santa Cruz County, northward. Belladonna lily (Amaryllis belladonna) is widely cultivated and has been reported in numerous California counties, primarily along the coast.

Even though snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea) is an unusual plant that does not contain chlorophyll and depends on a tree and a fungus for its nourishment, it still has flowers, and the flowers still have nectar.

This was the first time I'd seen any kind of insect feeding on its flowers.

From Sunday's out & back run from Islip Saddle to Mt. Baden-Powell.

Some related posts: Snow Plant, Western Tiger Swallowtail

Was looking to get in a short run this morning and decided to check if any Humboldt lilies were blooming in Upper Las Virgenes Canyon.

The last time I'd seen Humboldt lilies bloom here was June 2006, following an unusually wet Spring and a two year period in which Downtown Los Angeles recorded 50+ inches of rain. 

This Spring some months were wet and some months were dry, but December 2010 was the wettest in Los Angeles in 121 years. Add to the mix that the last two water years Los Angeles recorded above average rainfall, and it seemed there was a pretty good chance the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon lilies would be in bloom.

I'd seen lily stalks in other areas in recent weeks, and some blooming Humboldt lilies in the San Gabriel Mountains, but when I checked Upper Las Virgenes Canyon in early May, there had been none. But today there was -- right in the middle of thorny patch of blackberry bushes.

Also blooming in the canyon were California wild rose and the non-native plant moth mullein -- so named because of the similarity of the flower's anthers to the fuzzy appearing antennae of a moth.

Related post: Humboldt Lily

Relatively uncommon in the areas in which I run, the vivid rose-purple of Canchalagua (Centaurium venustum) is always a treat to see. Not only are its colors eye-catching, it's petals are unusually uniform and precisely formed, which makes the flowers stand out even more.  A closer look reveals bizarrely shaped anthers, which are fluted and spiraled.

The plant is reported to have been used medicinally, but according to Chumash Ethnobotany by Jan Timbrook & Chris Chapman, based on the field notes of John P. Harrington, it wasn't clear whether it was "a remedy of the old-time Indians, or of the whites."

Here's an advertisement from an 1852 volume of the American Whig Review, in which Canchalagua was specified as an ingredient of the patent medicine "Dr Rogers' Compound Syrup of Liverwort, Tar and Canchalagua." (The document was digitized by Google as part of the Making of America Project.)

Another startling chaparral color is the red of scarlet larkspur (Delphinium cardinale).

From this afternoon's (warm) run up the Chumash Trail to Rocky Peak Road in Rocky Peak Park.

The electric yellow of a clubhair mariposa (Calochortus clavatus) is one of the most vibrant colors of the chaparral. These blossoms are along the Phantom Trail in Malibu Creek State Park.

From Sunday's run of the Phantom Loop.

Some related posts: Mariposa Yellow, Mariposa, Plummer's Mariposa Lily

View West Toward Boney Mountain from the Phantom Trail

Following last weekend's Holcomb Valley 33 and yesterday's trail work, today I was looking to do something moderate. Without thinking too much about the condition of the Phantom Trail when I was on it a month ago, I decided to do the Phantom loop in Malibu Creek State Park. The eight mile loop is normally a favorite recovery run. The 1000' of elevation gain/loss is kind to tired legs, and the loop has varied terrain and great scenery.

The first five miles (Cistern, Lookout, Cage Creek, Crags Rd., Grassland and Liberty Canyon trails) are in decent shape, but portions of the Phantom Trail are really overgrown. The growth of the noxious invasive plant milk thistle in the Liberty Canyon area is the worst I've seen in years. At one point near Liberty Canyon the spiraling winds of a strong thermal picked up a countless number of the thistle's plumed seeds and carried them to who-knows-where!

The middle section of the Phantom Trail climbs up a shaded side canyon to a prominent ridge line. It isn't as overgrown. There is some very healthy poison oak that is sometimes difficult to avoid, but it's a pretty section of trail with a lot of green and a variety of wildflowers.

Once up on the ridge and for about the last 1.5 miles of the loop, the issue isn't with an noxious invasive, but with the native plant deerweed. It's so thick and brushy it's often difficult to see the trail -- or your footfalls, or ruts or rocks, or anything else on the trail.

While I wouldn't recommend this loop right now as a trail run, it was interesting to see (once again) how our wet rainy season has affected this area.

Some related posts: Invasive Thistle on the Phantom Trail, Milk Thistle Seed Heads