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Plant Guide

Primary Plant Communities

Welcome to Harbaugh Seaside Trails. We invite you to explore four “primary” vegetation communities.

In 2022-23, Nature Collective undertook an extensive project to map the diverse plant species across a 1,205-acre territory, including the San Elijo Reserve and Harbaugh Seaside Trails. The study revealed 71 plants “alliances,” providing crucial planning and environmental adaptation data. We grouped alliances into larger entities using advanced mapping techniques, highlighting shared traits to aid conservation strategies. We invite you to explore four “primary vegetation communities,” including Southern Maritime Chaparral, Diegan Coastal Sage Scrub, Maritime Succulent Scrub, and Coastal Strand through QR codes along the trails. Experience the richness of biodiversity and join our mission to safeguard it.

Map of Harbaugh Seaside Trails Plant Communities

bush of blooming cream/white colored flowers surrounded by green leafy stems

Diegan Coastal Sage Scrub

The Diegan Coastal Sage Scrub, home to low-growing shrubs and perennials, has a unique survival strategy, becoming dormant in summer and early fall to avoid drought. Its aromatic vegetation, including California sagebrush and California buckwheat, benefits from local fog and enhances the area’s biodiversity. More than a habitat, it’s also a vital ecosystem supporting diverse wildlife. It hosts the endangered California Gnatcatcher, known for its kitten-like call and playful Bushtits hopping plant to plant. The endangered Stephen’s Kangaroo Rat, which lives underground, emerges at night to hunt for seeds. All these species depend on this habitat, emphasizing its importance in conservation efforts.

Purple Beach Sand Verbena growing alongside the Lagoon

Southern Maritime Chaparral 

Southern Maritime Chaparral is rare in Southern California because of habitat loss. Locally, dominant plant species include chamise, and several forms of scrub oak. Southern Maritime Chaparral species tend to be evergreen; they are large shrubs and small trees with deep roots. Small, leathery leaves conserve water. These characteristics restrict the plant’s growth rates but allow it to survive the summer drought. Plants growing in this habitat rely on coastal fog for survival. The vegetation includes several threatened and endangered plants, such as the Del Mar manzanita Nuttall’s scrub oak and the wart-stemmed ceanothus, whose fragrant white blooms attract pollinators. You may notice a Spotted Towhee foraging in the leaf litter or hear the Wren Tit, often referred to as the “voice of the chaparral,” singing.

Coastal Strand 

Coastal Strand is an ocean-adjacent habitat and is part of the San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve’s ecosystem, marked by beach and dune habitats, coastal bluffs, and restored and inactive dunes along Coast Highway 101. The plants found in this habitat have adapted to the windy, sandy environment with vine-like stems for anchoring and soil stabilization. Harbaugh Seaside Trails lets you observe the unique flora like the purple beach sand verbena, yellow beach primrose, and rare coast wooly heads up close. In contrast, animals, including the endangered Western Snowy Plover and the prevalent Killdeer, can more frequently be seen at the dunes at Cardiff State Beach.

Harbaugh Seaside Trails native vegetation

Maritime Succulent Scrub 

A greater proportion of succulent plants distinguishes the Maritime Succulent Scrub. These include cactus species such as coast barrel cactus and the western prickly pear complex western-prickly-pear and coast cholla; succulent shrubs such as cliff spurge and succulent perennials such as chalk dudleya, an eye-catching rosette of succulent leaves covered in a white waxy powder that brushes off like chalk. Plants species found here host many host a variety of insects and  spiders who help maintain healthy soil, recycle nutrients, and pollinate flowers.

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