Travelling all over Southern California as I do, it's nice to go somewhere local, and having gone this year from the Antelope Valley to Anza-Borrego, from the Gavilan Hills of Riverside County to the Pebble Plains, and from Burton Mesa in Santa Barbara County to Death Valley, it was really good to check out an area that is practically in my back yard. This has been an odd year with weather patterns that are not typical for this region, but which may be more typical of its future. In most years the flora of this trail would be mostly done by now, but I discovered an enormous amount of blooming going on with sections of the trail lined with wildflowers. The Theodore Payne Foundation has for reasons known only to itself ended this year's Wildflower Hotline, and this trail loop is a good example of why their decision is a bad one. You only have to drive a few miles from Sierra Madre to Chantry Flats to find yourself in a wildflower wonderland. Click here for wildflower reports that continue what the TPF started, and thanks to Hartmut Wisch for the critter id's. A few of the species shown here were photographed along the road leading up to Chantry Flats. An asterisk indicates a non-native taxon.

Hairy bush monkeyflower
Mimulus aurantiacus var. pubescens
Phrymaceae

Prickly phlox
Linanthus californicus
Polemoniaceae

Martin's paintbrush
Castilleja applegatei ssp. martinii
Orobanchaceae
[Named for Domingo Castillejo Muñoz, 1744?-1793, and Elmer Ivan Applegate, 1867-1949]

California chicory
Rafinesquia californica
Asteraceae
[Named for Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1783-1840]