A Rare Rainy Hike in the Chapparal

A couple weekends ago a friend and I had a day off for MLK Jr. Day and decided to spend it hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains. It was an overcast day in LA, so we took the precaution of wearing our windbreakers, but never expected it would actually be raining farther west.

Our hike to Sandstone Peak, the highest in the range, was gloriously misty, more like the Pacific Northwest than our familiar desert. Seeing the landscape doused in moisture, such a rarity in the long drought, was magical. The reportedly excellent views were obscured, but details like the tiny droplets on branches came to the forefront.

Even on sunny days, the landscape is different up in these mountain areas. The vegetation, mostly low shrubs, is known as chapparal.

Narrow leaf yuccas abound, and the landscape also features broad-leaf evergreen trees. California’s grand pin oaks and live oaks are part of this category of trees, which I had never experienced before moving out west. The most common tree on Sandstone Peak hike was a particularly lovely species with peeling red bark and small light-colored leaves.

At first I assumed it was a kind of eucalypt due to its other most prominent feature- the smell! As soon as we stepped out of the car I noticed a very particular scent in the air, that good / bad cat pee-like odor that wafts off eucalyptus trees. The dampness in the air that day seemed to accentuate it.

It took me a full week of searching, both online and in actual books, to identify this new tree I had never seen before. In spite of its peeling bark and pungent smell, the red tree is not in fact a eucalypt at all, but a California native known as Red Shank, Latin name Adenostoma sparsifolium.

I learned recently that only 6% of all the tree species currently living in Southern California actually originated here, so it’s exciting that this beautiful specimen doesn’t come from Australia but right here.

 

Sea Hares at Point Dume

 

Low Tide Beach Combing

I‘ve tried many times before to make it to my favorite beach at low tide, but didn’t get the timing quite right until last week. Given the proximity of the Moon and the super-moon eclipse that occurred the day before, I’m thinking I may have witnessed a super-low tide. As you can see above, the amazing striated shelves were fully exposed. Tide pools in between held a plethora of treasures. I even met a new and wonderful creature!

Behold, Aplysia californica, the California Sea Hare:

Look at those ruffles!  

Since childhood I’ve had a special love for invertebrates, especially snails and slugs. I remember watching the nudibranchs glide beneath the sea with such delight in the Jaques Cousteau VHS’s my mom brought home from the library… Delight which was immediately recaptured when I spied this fat and friendly creature grazing peacefully in a small pool. I was amazed and snapped dozens of pictures of the this first one, only to realize that the beach was packed with them! A fellow beach comber suggested they were an “epidemic”, and certainly it did seem like they were the most common animal around. I’ve never seen even one before, though, so I can’t say for certain whether this was unusual. It could also be that the extra-low tide exposed more of their usual territory to our peeping eyes.

One of the most interesting things I noticed about them was their ability to remain alive when out of water, looking like shapeless blobs until submerged again. It’s amazing how they go from completely undefined mass to animal with distinct features in a matter of seconds. The other beach comber also told me that one “inked” her when she tried to pick it up, although that didn’t happen to me (maybe because the specimens I handled were all in blob mode when I put them back in the water to see what would happen). Wikipedia has a great picture of a Sea Hare releasing some ink.

They’ve actually got two different types of it; a purplish hue pictured above, and a milky substance. The Sea Hare is poisonous, so has few natural predators… another reason they roam the beach in such preponderance! A little further research shows that others have noticed the beach looking extra blobular this year, and warmer water offshore may be to blame. Global warming? El Niño currents?

Like so many natural events lately, my new friends could be a sign of climate change, and therefore not such a good thing for the environment. Since I can’t change their presence here, though, might as well appreciate it! I’m very glad to have had the special experience of making their acquaintance in such a beautiful spot.

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum

Crystalline Ice Plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum)

Point Dume State Park, Malibu, CA

During a long stroll on the beach at Point Dume yesterday, I was excited to discover this really cool little plant. It’s dune-side location, fleshy leaves and flowers, and creeping habit lead me to think it must be a type of Ice Plant. But what a about it’s most striking feature, that crazy coating of what looks like permanent dew? I’ve never seen anything like that before!

Wikipedia tells me that this is indeed an Ice Plant, a variety covered in “glistening bladder cells or water vesicles”. They feel something like resin to the touch, hard and glossy, a delightful mismatch between appearance and texture. You expect your fingertips to encounter water, or at least a liquid or gooey droplet, and find this small solid bead instead. Plants never cease to amaze me with their infinite adaptability.

In spite of their widespread propagation here in Southern California, Ice Plants are not native to this area, or even to this continent. They hail from the other Mediterranean climates of Southern Africa, the Sinai peninsula, and Southern Europe. The similar climate of our area is ideal for their lifestyle, and so once introduced they are able to thrive on their own. One unusual feature of Ice Plants is their very high salt tolerance– they are actually able to store up accumulated salt without being damaged. That explains their love of seaside living, and unfortunately also their ability to create a local monoculture by poisoning the soil for other plants. They are considered an invasive species moderately dangerous to California’s native ecosystem.

Oh well… Since they seem to be here to stay, might as well appreciate these enchanting little invaders!

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