Huckleberry Hill

A combination of edaphic and climatic features makes this area in the Del Monte forest one of exceptional botanical interest. The closed-cone pine forest here includes both the Bishop and Monterey pines, Pinus muricata and Pinus radiata, the only place where these two species are found growing together, and the rare Gowen cypress, Cupressus goveniana, known only from this and one other site. Despite the proximity and the close relationship of the two pines, they have not hybridized to any extent and the two species remain distinct. In the nearest closed-cone pine forests to the north and south (see Coastways Ranch and Cambria Monterey Pines, respectively) only the Monterey pine occurs; the nearest stands of the Bishop pine are over 160 kilometers (100 miles) distant to the north and south (see Los Osos Bishop Pines Area).

This forest is a relict of the closed-cone pine forest that covered much of the California coast and adjacent islands during the Pleistocene; fossil evidence reveals that at several localities the ancestors of the "closed-cone" cypresses were also present in these forests. As the interior climate cooled, the frost-susceptible pines were able to survive only along the more temperate coast.

The forest is located on a raised sea terrace, one of seven cut during glacial times. (See also Palos Verdes Hills Marine Terraces, Pygmy Forest Ecological Staircase.) In the Pleistocene the highest terrace may have been around 180 meters (600 feet) and beach deposits--caused by the receding sea--are found at 120 meters (400 feet). The beach deposits formed acid, sterile, clay-pan, poorly drained soil--a podsol -- to which the Pinus muricata and Cupressus goveniana were able to adapt, although in stunted form, creating a "pygmy forest." On slightly better soils the cypresses do not occur and the Bishop pine achieves a more normal growth; on the better soils the Monterey pine begins to dominate.

There are several species found here that are typical of the more mesic forests to the north, including salal, Gaultheria shallon, and huckleberry, Vaccinium ovatum. The bear grass, Xerophyllum tenax, is at the southernmost limit of its range here; the next northerly population is found in association with the Abrams cypress near Bonnie Doon in Santa Cruz County. Several rare species grow here including Ericameria fasciculata, Ceanothus rigidus and Arctostaphylos hookeri.

Integrity: A portion of the hill is in the County-owned Samuel F. B. Morse Reserve. Housing or sand quarries surround the area. Portions were burned last in the 1940's but they have recovered.

Use: Educational, research, observational. Access is by toll-gate to the Del Monte properties.

Ref: Axelrod, Daniel I. 1967. Evolution of the California Closed-Cone Pine Forest, in Philbrick, Ralph N. (ed.), Proceedings of the Symposium on the Biology of the California Islands, pp. 93-149, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara.
Howitt, B. F. and J. T. Howell, 1964. The Vascular Plants of Monterey County, California. Wasmann Jour, of Biology, 22 (l), pp. 1-184.
McMillan, C. 1956. The Edaphic Restriction of Cupressus and Pinus in the Coast Ranges of Central California. Ecological Monographs 26, pp. 177-212.

August 1975