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Health & Fitness

Blog: Blooming Now in the Santa Monica Mountains

Flowers continue to bloom in spite of the dry weather. Get out and see them while you can.

Though it has been one of the driest years on record, flowers continue to bloom, especially in the more moist canyons and woodlands.  The following are some that have been seen lately.

Encelia or bush sunflower (Encelia californica) is one of the most common plants blooming now.  It is a shrub found in coastal sage scrub and chaparral.  Look for yellow 'daisies' with brown centers.

A similar flower is slender sunflower (Helianthus gracilentus).  This is also a shrub of the chaparral.  Looke for yellow 'daisies' with greenish to orangish centers.  

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Star lily (Zygadenus fremontii) is a relatively small chaparral plant, reported to be up to three feet tall but usually much shorter.  It bears clusters of white flowers with green centers.  

Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) is a plant of grasslands and similar open places.  Plants are usually about a foot tall.  Look for six-petalled purple flowers with yellow centers.

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Chinese houses (Collinsia heterophylla) are found in groups, usually in the shade of oak woodlands or chaparral.  With sufficient rain or in wetter sites, plants grow whorls of flowers like a pagoda, hence the common name.  The lower lobes of the flower are purple and the upper lobes are pale purple to white.  

Crimson pitcher sage (Salvia spathacea) is found in oak woodlands.  This has not been a good year for the blooming of crimson pitcher sage and some plants are starting to dry up without blooming, but occasional flowers can be found.  Plants are 1 to 2 feet high with whorls of pinkish-red flowers.

Fiesta flower (Pholistoma auritum) is a straggling annual found in groups in shady areas.  Flowers are entirely purple with darker markings.  

Parry's phacelia (Phacelia parryi) is an annual about a foot tall.  The flowers are bluish-purple with white dots at the center.  The plant is very common after a fire but smaller groups of the plants can also be found in disturbed areas along trails in the chaparral.  

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