Observations on the 2026 wildflower season.
It’s July in Southern California. Is the wildflower season over? Those beauties we saw in April or May — aren’t they all gone? Aside from a mess of dried seedpods, wilted petals, and brittle stems the color of hay, is there anything pretty left to see?
Well, actually, yes. There’s always something in bloom in our local hills, even if you have to look around a bit — plants that don’t fear the heat, like California Buckwheat, Jimsonweed, or Cliff Asters. But for the La Cañada Trails Council, July is when our weekly wildflower posts scale back to just a few late summer and autumn posts, perhaps every six or seven weeks. Scaling back the pace, however, invites a bit of a recap — looking back and looking forward.
Start with this axiom: wildflowers in So. Cal. are never predictable. They’re too dependent on the variables of winter rains and spring sunshine to ever be punctual — and while the heavy rains we got from mid-November through mid-February (over 25″ near JPL) had some people dreaming of a superbloom, the hottest March on record largely wrecked those hopes. Instead, many of our local wildflowers showed up 4–6 weeks early, while others bloomed … not at all. Bush Monkeyflowers had a good year, but Red Maids were an utter no-show.
If you’re keeping track, this second year of the LCF wildflower blog brought us to our fortieth blog post, covering 46 species. We’ll add a few more between July and January, until weekly entries resume next February. Perhaps you’re wondering: How long can we keep this up? The answer is: Quite a while! The nearby (and better-studied) Verdugo Mtns. host over 250 flowering native species (and over 65 non-natives), and better than half of these are likely found at Cherry Canyon and elsewhere around 91011. We’ve already been photographing and studying additional species for next year’s posts, and it’s not beyond reason to think of sticking with this project until we reach a hundred species — in 2029?
In any case, next year will bring us closer looks at our other flowering sumacs, two other sages, and at least two more species of phacelia. Other standouts to look forward to include Gold Stars, a delicate globe of yellow stars; Wavy-leaf Soap Plant, which is our most notable night-bloomer; and Sacapellote, a robust and gangly plant with some exquisite colors tucked into its peculiar blossom. And of course there are additional invasive species to study, including Star Thistle, Tree Tobacco, and Castor Bean, all of which have interesting blossoms, even if we sorta wish they would wither away.
Writing about these local species has been an exhilarating way for me to learn more about flowers whose names I’d known for years, but whose history, anatomy, and habits I’d taken for granted. True, you don’t need to know even the name of a flower to appreciate its beauty! But if you learn its name, and if you go on to identify its basic anatomy and habitat, you’ll find that naming these features enables you to see these details. A closer look at that pretty pink blob can reveal an architectural wonder as well as a rich palette of many shades of pink — and often many unexpected shapes and colors on the stamens or pollen. So much to see as you look closer and closer — and every flower you learn gives you an edge when you meet the next new one.
The La Cañada Trails Council hopes you will enjoy the beauty of our many native flowers — and that you will join us as we work not only to maintain and enhance the fantastic trail system here in 91011, but also as we strive to advocate for the flora and fauna of the semi-wild natural areas with which we are blessed: Cherry Canyon, and the steep flanks of Mt. Lukens. We welcome your interest and support, so please subscribe to our newsletter and blog, and consider joining us in our occasional activities and service projects. Meanwhile, happy trails!
