In 1966, Peter Raven (Ph.D., UCLA, 1960) and Professor Harry Thompson at UCLA produced a flora of the Santa Monica Mountains, one that was simple enough to use in taxonomy and ecology classes at UCLA and nearby colleges and universities. The flora was published and sold on the UCLA campus. In 1977, David Verity, senior museum scientist of the UCLA botanical garden, helped to produce a revised flora with updated plant names. In 1986, Barry Prigge in the UCLA herbarium published a second edition, including a number of plants that had been discovered since the original project. Edition two is now fifteen years out of date.
.In March the National Park Service awarded Dr. Barry Prigge and Dr. Arthur C. Gibson a contract of $38,000 to inventory the vascular plant species known to be found within the Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills. There are approximately 900 species in the mountain range and adjacent habitats. Following their year-long inventory of herbarium records around Southern California and some new field work, Prigge and Gibson will be writing a new flora containing much more complete species diagnoses and illustrations, along with invited introductory chapters on the natural history of our neighboring mountains. We will keep you posted on the progress of this project, and will notify you when the new flora will be available for purchase.