Читать книгу Afoot & Afield: Orange County. A Comprehensive Hiking Guide онлайн

22 страница из 92

A few species of plants of limited geographic extent in the county are worth noting:

Knobcone pine, somewhat widely distributed in the northern and central California Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, clings to a small toehold in the Santa Ana Mountains on the slopes of Pleasants Peak. Here, it finds the warm, dry climate and the particular kind of soil—serpentine—it thrives on.

Bigleaf maple, California bay (bay laurel), and madrone, found in the west-side canyons of the Santa Ana Mountains, are three more examples of trees at or close to the southern end of their natural range. The madrones are restricted to a tiny area in upper Trabuco Canyon.

The Tecate cypress, once widespread throughout Southern California, is now confined to small arboreal islands in San Diego County, in northern Baja California, and along the slopes of Coal and Gypsum Canyons in the northern Santa Anas (just outside the Cleveland National Forest boundary). Here, it finds the extra moisture, in the form of nocturnal fogs moving in from the coast, that it needs in order to hold onto its biological niche.