Figueroa Mountain is a summit in

Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara County, California, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is located in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria. Santa Barba ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is in the

San Rafael Mountains The San Rafael Mountains are a mountain range in central Santa Barbara County, California, U.S., separating the drainages of the Santa Ynez River and the Santa Maria River. They are part of the Transverse Ranges system of Southern Californ ...

, part of the

Transverse Ranges The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie within Santa ...

group of ranges. The mountain is located in

Los Padres National Forest Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in southern and central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast from Ventura to Mo ...

. Figueroa Mountain was named for a member of the well-known southern California family, the most eminent of whom was

José Figueroa José Figueroa (1792 – 29 September 1835), was a General and the Mexican Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835. He wrote the first book to be published in California. Background and governorship Figueroa was a Mestizo of Spanish ...

, governor of Alta California in 1833–35. In turn, the mountain itself served as the inspiration for the name for the Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company. The Figueroa Mountain Recreation Area has excellent spring wildflower displays after wet winters. Late March brings out the early blooming specimens such as purple shooting stars ( Dodecatheon clevelandii ssp. clevelandii). Later arrivals on the mountain include chocolate lilies ( Fritillaria biflora), and the scarlet Indian paintbrush (

Castilleja ''Castilleja'', commonly known as paintbrush, Indian paintbrush, or prairie-fire, is a genus of about 200 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants native to the west of the Americas from Alaska south to the Andes, northern Asia, and on ...

spp). The open grassland areas support a profusion of annual species including goldfields (Lasthenia spp.), sky lupine (

Lupinus nanus ''Lupinus nanus'', the sky lupine, field lupine, dwarf lupin, ocean-blue lupine or Douglas' annual lupine, is a species of lupine native to the western United States. It is found natively in California, Nevada, and on Steens Mountain in eastern ...

), and California poppy (

Eschscholzia californica ''Eschscholzia californica'', the California poppy, golden poppy, California sunlight or cup of gold, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae, native to the United States and Mexico. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant ...

). Other favorites include hummingbird sage ( Salvia spathacea) and blue dicks ( Dipterostemon capitatus). The plant community here is an inland central oak woodland dominated by valley oak (

Quercus lobata ''Quercus lobata'', commonly called the valley oak or roble, grows into the largest of California oaks. It is endemic to California, growing in interior valleys and foothills from Siskiyou County to San Diego County. Mature specimens may attain ...

), blue oak (

Quercus douglasii ''Quercus douglasii'', known as blue oak, is a species of oak endemic to (and found only in) California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is California's most drought-tolerant deciduous oak, and is a domina ...

), interior live oak (

Quercus wislizenii ''Quercus wislizeni'', known by the common name interior live oak, is an evergreen oak, highly variable and often shrubby, found in many areas of California in the United States continuing south into northern Baja California in Mexico. It genera ...

), and gray pine ( Pinus sabiniana). The companion shrub species are manzanita (

Arctostaphylos ''Arctostaphylos'' (; from "bear" and "bunch of grapes") is a genus of plants comprising the manzanitas () and bearberries. They are shrubs or small trees. There are about 60 species, of ''Arctostaphylos'', ranging from ground-hugging arc ...

spp.), coffeeberry and redberry ( Rhamnus spp.) and gooseberry and currants (

Ribes ''Ribes'' is a genus of about 200 known species of flowering plants, most of them native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The various species are known as currants or gooseberries, and some are cultivated for their edible ...

spp.).

References

External links

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Figueroa Mountain Wildflowers
info site Mountains of Santa Barbara County, California San Rafael Mountains Los Padres National Forest Mountains of Southern California {{SantaBarbaraCountyCA-geo-stub