Occasional observations on the wildflowers of 91011.
The Continental Divide, as you already know, is that central ridge in the Rocky Mountains where rainfall on the west side runs to the Pacific Ocean, while rainfall on the east ends up in the Gulf of Mexico. Cherry Canyon sits on a similar divide, where you can find a pair of closely-related flowering shrubs whose ranges don’t overlap much at all — yet somehow these two species meet at Cherry Canyon, each one nearly at the very edge of its range.
Brittlebush flourishes along the fire road north of Cerro Negro Lookout
You see, California Encelia (Encelia californica), a.k.a. Bush Sunflower, is really a plant of the coastal plains from Santa Maria south to Tijuana. It thrives in the Santa Monica Mtns., but — despite the efforts of Caltrans to seed it along the Angeles Crest Highway! — it’s all-but-unknown up in the San Gabriel Mtns. and fairly scarce in the nearby Verdugos and our own San Rafael Hills. By contrast, Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa), its kissing cousin, is typically a shrub of the desert, quite at home in Death Valley, the Mojave Desert, Coachella Valley, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. One of these shrubs makes its home to the west; the other, to the east. Nonetheless, both occur at the highest elevations of Cherry Canyon.
The blossoms of California Encelia (at sunset) and Brittlebush
Both shrubs are medium-sized, and both have bright yellow flowers. But they also have two easy distinctions. First, whereas the leaves of California Encelia are reliably green and even a bit shiny, the leaves of Brittlebush are almost always a powdery green, as if dusted with flour. (The Latin farinosa means “flour-like.”) Second, the center of the flower — technically, the disk, not the outer rays or petals — is generally dark purple or brown in California Encelia but usually golden-yellow in Brittlebush. Unless, of course, the two species have hybridized (yes, cousins can do that in some states!), in which case that central disk will tend toward red.
The leaves of California Encelia and Brittlebush
How did they come to share the same turf, living as next-door neighbors here at Cherry Canyon? Who knows, maybe the wind or birds brought the seeds here. Or maybe Encelia californica was deliberately sown to provide ground cover and erosion control near the Cerro Negro Lookout. (A local botanist once suggested that some of these plants should be identified as Encelia caltransica!) Either way, both shrubs are true California natives, and both are naturally found not all that far from here. So we’re lucky, because we can study and enjoy both of them as they continue to flourish barely 350 yards from one another.
California Encelia, late in the day at the Cerro Negro Lookout
Where and when to find them. California Encelia is the dominant shrub on the slope immediately south of the Cerro Negro Lookout. A sprinkling of E. californica continues on the ridge that runs south of there, and at least one robust shrub is found on the upper Cerro Negro Trail a bit to the northeast. Brittlebush is easiest to find at the level section of fire road just 0.2 mile north of the lookout, but it’s also common near Devil’s Gate Dam and on the southeast-facing slopes east of Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy but above Inverness Drive. Both shrubs are spring bloomers, but Brittlebush actually blooms a second time in late summer.
- For more about Encelia, visit Wikipedia.
- For information about growing E. californica or E. farinosa in your yard, visit Calscape.org.
- For distribution maps, taxonomy, and more photos, visit Calflora.org.
- You can also read (or subscribe to) other occasional notes on the wildflowers of 91011.
