CNPS San Gabriel Mountains Chapter

Around Chilao

In the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains, along the Angeles Crest Highway, is the Chilao Visitors Center, which at present is unfortunately closed. Nearby is the campground and a network of roads through the forest. While much of the San Gabriel Mountains is covered with that relatively low plant system that we call chaparral, the Chilao area, high on the ridge around 6,000 feet, has substantial amounts of open conifer forest, mostly Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi).

During 2008, our CNPS chapter sponsored a monthly series of plant walks, led by Jane Strong, each month concentrating on the plants and flowers at a different elevation in the Chilao area, thus following the spring bloom as it gradually extended higher and higher into the mountains. The photos below are all from the mountain plant walk of June 2008, which was actually a slow drive around various roads in the immediate vicinity of the Chilao Visitors Center..

Click on the thumbnails to see higher-resolution images, 640 x 480 pixels.


Southerly view from near the Chilao campground	Coulter pine (PInus coulteri)		Scarlet bugler (Penstemon centranthifolius) is common around Chilao, most notably on slopes covered with Jeffrey pine

Grape soda lupine (Lupinus excubitus ssp. Johnstonii)		Pine green-gentian (Swertia neglecta)		Davidson's phacelia (Phacelia davidsonii)

Mojave phacelia (Phacelia mohavensis)		Wild onion (Allium lacunosum)	Mountain violet (Viola purpureai)

Spreading larkspur (Delphinium patens)		Creek monkey flower (Mimulus guttatus)	Plain mariposa lily (Calochortus invenustus)

Sulphur-flowered buckwheat (Eriogonum unbellatum)	Mojave lianthus (Lianthus breviculus)		Grinnell's penstemon (Penstemon grinnelli)	Diamond-petalled clarkia (Clarkia rhomboidea)

Palmer's mariposa lily (Calochortus palmeri)		Silver puffs (Uropappus lindley)	Probably spearleaf mountain dandelion (Agoseris retrorsa)	Blue dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum)