To call this a creek, named or otherwise, is to be generous to what is more accurately a seasonal channel that drains some hills on the north side of the Angeles Crest Highway near mileage marker 54 between Three Points and Cloudburst Summit and then continues down roughly parallel to and between the ACH and the Pacific Crest Trail. It is a location known to many botanists because of the rare plant that grows there, Triteleia lugens. After a morning excursion down the Burkhart Trail looking for lemon lilies in bloom, we repaired to this location to try to find the Triteleia. There is a lot of confusion about the triplet lily taxa in the San Gabriels, with a total of three species having been vouchered, ixioides, dudleyi and lugens. I think that it is likely that all the plants there are lugens. In any event we began to search and it only took about ten minutes before Gabi McLean found the first (and only) one in bloom hiding in the drainage. We gathered around it as if it were a chunk of gold. By the time the group began to drift away, we had only found a handful of plants all in fruit, but Gabi's sharp eyes had made the search successful. Later Fred Roberts (and I a couple of days later) in following the channel further west found several hundred plants though none were in bloom. This is clearly the place to go to see this species, and in a wetter year it abounds with interesting plants.

Spanish clover
Acmispon americanus var. americanus
Fabaceae

Golden yarrow
Eriophyllum confertiflorum var. confertiflorum
Asteraceae

Southern mountain woolstar
Eriastrum densifolium ssp. austromontanum
Polemoniaceae