With the islands having never been connected to the mainland, plants, seeds, and spores over millions of years were carried from the mainland by ocean currents, wind, and birds or in the fur of animals that reached the islands. Due to continuous isolation from the mainland, many plant communities on the islands are unique, including the absence of some common mainland species and the presence of many island endemics (species that grow naturally only on one or more of the Channel Islands).

Since the Chumash did not practice agriculture, they used native plants as a primary source of food and medicine. Native plants also provided important construction materials for canoes, houses, bows, arrows, nets, baskets, beds, clothing, footwear, ornaments, and a variety of other items used in daily life.

With nonnative browsing and grazing animals now removed, many native plants are spreading beyond the steep canyon walls and cliffs-where they remained protected from grazing for nearly 150 years-and reestablishing themselves throughout the island. Take time to look carefully in Water Canyon (or other island canyons such as Lobo and Cherry Canyons) and you should see some of the following species.

Toyon

Also known as Christmas berry or California holly, this plant is an evergreen chaparral and coastal sage scrub species that grows on all of the larger islands and on the mainland as well. Due to sheep grazing and reduced fire frequency, toyons on the island are more tree-like than most found on the mainland. During the summer and fall the small flowers decorating the tips of the branches give way to clusters of bright red berries. During the winter these berries provide an important food supply for birds.

The Chumash ate toyon berries as well, roasting them or letting them wilt in the hot sun before eating. Toyon was also a valuable source of hardwood for manufacturing a variety of implements such as arrows, harpoons, fish spears, digging sticks, and gaming pieces. The Chumash often used heat or steam to shape and form objects made from toyon and other hardwoods.

Island Scrub Oak, Coast Live Oak, and Island Cherry

Island scrub oak is a thin-branched shrub with flat, smooth-edged leaves that are rich green on the upper surface and a dull gray underneath. Coast live oak is a much taller and stouter tree, with cupped, spiny-edged leaves and "hairy armpits." Turn over one of the leaves and look for a small, fuzzy white patch where some of the side veins of the leaf join the central vein.

The acorns from these oaks, along with those from six other species that grow on Santa Rosa Island, were an important food source for the Island Chumash and many other California Indian groups. Each fall acorns were gathered, hulled, dried, and stored in large granary baskets. When prepared, acorns were ground into meal, leached to remove the tannic acid and bitter flavor, and cooked into mush. Other seeds and herbs may have been added to enhance the (generally bland) flavor.

Although the Island Chumash gathered acorns, oaks are less abundant on the islands than on the mainland. To increase their supply of acorns and other medicinal and food plants, the islanders engaged in trade or undertook gathering expeditions to the mainland. The island Chumash also compensated for the short supply of acorns by substituting other plant foods in their place. One important alternative was island cherry. Most often, island cherry grows as a large shrub. However, in deep, moist soils and sunshine it can grow to a forty-foot tree. This plant blooms from spring through early summer. When ripe, the fruit ranges in color from dark purple to black and is characterized by a large seed and pulpy flesh. In addition to eating the pulp, the pits were boiled in several changes of water to release the toxic chemicals. Then the pits were mashed to the consistency of refried beans and eaten.

Monkey Flower

Monkey flower is common in chaparral throughout California. Known as "sticky" monkey flower because the deep green leaves secrete a gluey substance, they bloom from January to May and were named for the monkey face that sometimes can be seen within the orange to pale yellow flowers. A mainland species, endemic island species, and a hybrid between the two occur here on Santa Rosa Island. The island endemic species differs from the mainland species in the lack of sticky leaves and its bright red flowers. The hybrid produces peach or bronze-colored flowers. These plants are commonly seen on rock walls where the nonnative animals could not reach.

Lemonade Berry

Lemonade berry is a shrub with thick, leathery leaves. The Chumash would steep the sticky, lemon-tasting berries in water to make juice, or they would suck on them like candy. One should be careful, however, since lemonade berry belongs to the same family as poison oak and can trigger a skin rash in those sensitive to it.

Santa Cruz Island Ironwood

Thousands of years ago the Channel Islands had a moister climate, as did much of southern California. Different plant communities and different animals, such as pygmy mammoths, existed on the islands. The Santa Cruz Island ironwood is a relic of this earlier environment. Fossil evidence indicates that ironwoods once grew on the mainland as far north as Washington and as far east as Nevada.

Today the ironwood grows only on islands in locations where conditions approximate California's earlier, wetter climate. Small groves of these trees are often found on Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands, where they grow mostly in north-facing canyons cooled by fog. In fact, fog is an important element in the ironwood's successful adaptation and survival. Moisture from fog collects on the leaves and drips down to the soil surrounding the trunk, thereby increasing the amount of water available to the tree. This also helps to sustain the other larger tree species on Santa Rosa and the other islands.

Ironwood has dark green, highly serrated, finger-like leaves and in summer produces many small white flowers.

Poison Oak

Poison oak grows on all of the Channel Islands except Santa Barbara Island and is readily identified in spring as a three-leafed shrub or vine with bronze-green foliage. During late summer and fall the leaves turn a red or rust color and white berries develop. Poison oak can cause allergic reactions and rashes if it comes in contact with the skin. Please do not touch. The Chumash used poison oak to treat warts, cankers, and skin cancer and to staunch blood flow.

Coastal Prickly Pear

The coastal prickly pear is a cactus that blooms in May and June, producing a shiny yellow flower with dense layers of petals. The plant's shallow root system spreads over a wide area to extract maximum moisture while its sharp spines reflect the sun and wind to help protect the plant from deyhydration.

The spines also helped protect the plant from cattle, sheep, elk, deer, and pigs, allowing it to spread into the overgrazed sage scrub and grasslands. Forney's map of 1873 depicted numerous thickets of cactus across the island. Mrs. Woolley said, "the thing I remember most vividly is that when I was young there was lots and lots of cactus. Fields of it, acres of it." Edwin Stanton on neighboring Santa Cruz Island, an avid student of agricultural science, used cochineal insects to rid his island of native prickly pear cactus. The cochineal insects appear as small, silvery white mounds on the cactus pads. These insects weaken and eventually kill the cactus by sucking sap from the plant. Both Mrs. Woolley and Al Vail speculated that Stanton's "bugs" migrated to Santa Rosa Island and eliminated most of the cacti. Mrs. Woolley noted that "it just died by the acre."

The Chumash harvested the sweet prickly pear fruit and used its beet-red juice as a paint and dye. The long, sharp cactus thorns were used for decorative ear piercing and tattooing. Vertical and transverse lines were commonly tattooed on the cheeks and chin, although tattoo designs were applied also to the forehead, arms, and other parts of the body. To create a dark blue tattoo, the skin was pricked with a cactus thorn and the punctures rubbed with charcoal. When the wounds healed the pigment was sealed under the skin.

Dudleya (Live-forever)

Perhaps no plant is more versatile in adapting to different habitats than dudleya. These low-growing, fleshy succulents with a waxy coating commonly grow on dry, rocky outcroppings like the walls of Water Canyon.

However, they also can be found on stabilized sand dunes, grasslands, and scrub habitats in conditions varying from full sun to shade. This adaptability is reflected in the variety of dudleyas found on the Channel Islands, including four species on Santa Rosa Island.

On these canyon walls one can find candleholder and Greene's dudleya. These Channel Island endemics also occur on San Miguel and Santa Cruz Islands. The other dudleya species, Santa Rosa Island live-forever and munchkin dudleya, occur just on
Santa Rosa Island and they grow only on the island's eastern tip. See page 58 for more information about these unique dudleyas.

Wild Cucumber

Another plant that evolved to deal with the dry conditions of southern California (average rainfall on Santa Rosa is approximately 19 inches) is the vine-like wild cucumber that often can be seen along the hillsides in the oak understory. This plant has an immense, poisonous, fleshy root, or underground tuber, that stores water and nutrients.

Wild cucumber is one of the very first flowers to bloom from January to June. The plant sprawls over trees, shrubs, and the ground, leaving a tangle of dried stems and leaves by midsummer. In spring however, the wild cucumber forms large, egg-shaped, bright green fruits covered with big soft green prickles that turn hard and spiny as the fruits dry.

Inside are large seeds. The Chumash made necklaces of these seeds, polishing them along their oiled bodies. They were used also as marbles by Chumash children.

Other Native Plant Species

Other plants to look for include giant coreopsis, scouring rush, coastal goldenbush, indian pink, Santa Cruz Island buckwheat, island red buckwheat, and California poppy.