Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Nestled along deep, dark canyon floors and atop the Santa Lucias' dry, rocky
slopes and summits lives the rarest, most distinct, and narrowly distributed of all fir
species, the endemic Santa Lucia fir. They are easily identified by droopy, densely
foliated crowns that extend from the base of the tree with lower branches that nearly
touch the ground. The tree's differing habitats share one characteristic: each is relat-
ively fire resistant. Although the range is subject to periodic wildfires, the Santa Lucia
fir is not fire adapted and cannot survive in areas susceptible to burning.
Fossil evidence from the Miocene period (22 million to 6 million years ago)
proves the Santa Lucia fir was once widely distributed throughout western North
America. During the Miocene, the climate was much warmer and wetter than today,
including regular summer rainfall. During the Pliocene period (5.2 to 1.6 million
years ago), the climate cooled, leading to the ice ages of the Pleistocene (1.6 million
to 11,000 years ago). The Santa Lucia fir could not withstand these colder, drier con-
ditions and thus retreated to milder coastal climates.
Botanist Thomas Coulter first described the Coulter pine in 1832 near Cone Peak.
Its enormous, sharp-spurred cones are the heaviest of any pine species. The tree grows
in association with canyon live oaks, tanoaks, California bays, and madrones. On the
flanks of Junipero Serra Peak, Coulter pines grow alongside stately sugar pines.
A Scottish botanist first described sugar pines in 1831 while climbing Cone Peak.
These largest of all pines boast enormous cones that are longer and more slender than
the Coulter pine's cones. Distinct from their Sierra Nevada and Southern California
cousins, Big Sur's sugar pines are restricted to isolated peaks and higher elevation
slopes atop Cone and Junipero Serra Peaks.
