The Hungry Valley SVRA is the second largest of the state's off-road vehicle recreation areas, comprising some 19,000 acres in the Tejon Pass along I-5 north of Los Angeles. I was somewhat tardy in getting up there this year and as a result perhaps missed some of the bloom, but since it was such a dry year the bloom was undoubtedly not what it would be in a good year, and the hills were mostly covered with grasses. Nevertheless, there were a few species to be found in some abundance. I merely drove around the Stipa Trail and Powerline Road loop which is a very narrow dirt road where there are few places to park and stopped a number of times to poke about. I look forward to visiting the area again in a year when there has been good rainfall. One of the species I was especially anxious to find was Camissoniopsis ignota, which I've never seen and which was on a wildflower report for Hungry Valley, but all the Camissonias I saw seemed to be the more common campestris. I also drove along the Gorman Post Road looking for Bentham lupines but didn't see a one. The symbol ^ next to the common name indicates a taxon that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip, and an asterisk is for a non-native species. Thanks to Tom Chester and Jane Strong for help with id's, and to Hartmut Wisch and Jim Hogue for the critter id's. |