Beautiful threats are growing on the newly burnt slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains.
The whimsical name Poodle Dog Bush thrives in the wake of the fire, including the more than 14,000 acres of Eaton fire that destroyed the belt of the Angeles National Forest in January. Mountain shrubs strike the senses with bell-shaped purple flowers and fragrances that mimic marijuana. But a pretty puppy stuffs a bite. In many cases, contact results in skin rashes.
Plant experts say the conditions paved the way for new crops at Heliodicutillon Parili in the Angeles National Forest. It’s a hiker’s troubling, but botanists say native plants play an important role in the ecosystem.
Veteran San Gabriel Mountains runner and hiker Cameron Hammels can clearly point out his worst fight with Bush.
In 2020, Pasadena residents were trekking through deep snow to the top of Mount Wilson. Adorned with shorts, he didn’t notice the Poodle Dog being buried under an ice blanket. Two days later, the reaction arrived: redness, itching, smears, skin, blisters filled with small liquids.
“My legs were burning with itching,” he said. It lasted for several weeks.
Poodle-Dog is not a common name like Poison Oak or Ivy, probably because its geographical region is limited. The shrub reportedly is named after the furry, hanging and coiled leaves of a poodle, but grows in Chaparral, approximately 3,300-7,500 feet, on the slopes and ridges of granite, in Southern California. The seeds can remain dormant for years until severe heat or other cues from wildfires cause germination. (Another disturbance, such as a landslide, can also cause that.)
Plants can grow rapidly in peeled landscapes, sometimes running up to 10 feet tall within a year. For about a decade or more, other plants have beaten it and it disappears.
The plant-based area has seen many flames in recent months, awakening dogs sleeping in the belts of Southern California.
Shortly after the fatal Etonfire was fired, Hughes’ fire sparked near the Castay lake, chewing over 10,000 acres. In September, a bridge fire that began in the Angeles National Forest devoured more than 50,000 acres. That month, nearly 44,000 acres of line fires ignited near high altitude communities before it surged into the San Bernardino National Forest. Between last summer and this spring, several other small fires burned in the area.
According to U.S. Forest Service botanist Estelle Lewis, the poodle dog quickly leapt out in several areas burned on the bridge.
With its flashy, lavender flowers and the general “quirky, Dr. Seusstype look,” the hiker may be seduced to pose next to it, as Lewis wrote in an email. However, encounters can be miserable.
Some people do not respond at all, while others experience severe skin irritation. culprit? According to Lewis, hairs covering stems, leaves and flowers have glands that secrete sticky substances, including prenylated phenols, and some glands that cause itching. Reactions are often compared to reactions to poisonous oaks and ivy, but some say that it’s a bad thing. The hair itself can cause irritation “like fiberglass”,” Lewis said.
Symptoms may appear several hours or days after contact. The rash can be spread indirectly by the hair and glandular glands of the plant.
Recent rains have made the forest more likely to see more tragedy.
Phoenix in the foliage world needs soil to remain moist for about a month to six weeks. Finally got it.
In 2011, bees fuss around purple flowers in poodle bushes in the Angeles National Forest.
(Robert Gautier/Los Angeles Times)
Becker expects Poodle-Dog to grow. It grows alongside other so-called fire followers, such as fire poppies, golden ear rings, and whispers.
“I would have expected them to be just a little baby now, just inches tall,” Becker said of the early poodle dogs.
The Poodle Dog is located in the southern Sierra Nevada area on the south coast and in Baja California. It is particularly common in the lateral range, including San Gabriel Mountain, northeast of LA.
However, it is not common to encounter it in the coastal Santa Monica Mountains. So, in January, the range bands hanging from the Palisade fire were torched, but the hikers there probably won’t face off against it.
Perennials may not flower this year. Instead, they may be diving in for a dry summer, and then, if enough rain comes, they may bloom in the spring of 2026, Becker said.
Anything that took part in the Poodle Dog, which colonized the landscape after previous wildfires, including the devastating Bobcat Blaze of 2020, has smoked more than 180 square miles from the mountains of Langabriel, ranking among the biggest fires in LA County history.
“Everything is bobcat and it’s still thick and healthy,” said Carson Breaker, chairman of the Wilson Mountain Bicycle Assn. volunteering at lowlifes Asteble Citizens ‘Club – a nonprofit organization that restores trails. It includes all the north facing slopes of Mount Wilson.
Blaker is looking to have an immediate impact on trails such as the Idol Hall of Mount Wilson at San Gabriel Mountains, Castle Canyon and upstream. In the past, factories tortured hikers along parts of the Pacific Crest Trail in range.
Trail Restoration requires alleviating annoying things like Poodle-Dog from Pathway, but banishment from the area is not necessarily viable. That’s the case with the Valley Forge Trail, a bike assn on Mount Wilson. It’s rehabilitation. “It’s like an acre of what’s growing in a bunch,” Breaker said.
Outdoor enthusiasts may not immediately compete with fresh poodle dogs. Many popular trails and campsites in the Angeles National Forest may remain closed until at least the end of the year with each Forest Service order. (The closure was lifted Friday due to an area outside the scars of Eton Fireburn.) However, the poisonous plants are expected to be hanging when they reopen.
It is still unclear how many Poodle-Dogs have emerged in the wake of recent fires, but the general consensus is to stay as far away as possible.
“It depends on the distribution of seeds stored in the soil and what other plants are available, but can cover thousands of acres,” said Lewis of the Forest Service. “I observed it dominating the entire hillside.”
Lush poodle dogs grow in the Sequoia National Forest. The shrubs in the fire are primarily confined to Southern California and can be found in southern Sierra Nevada.
(Fletcher Linton via AP/US Forest Service)
Trail visitors are advised to be well versed in what the plants look like to avoid it. Long plants and sleeves are also a solid way to prevent contact. Those who know, staying on the trail will prevent most incidents.
If contact is suspected, Trail Restorer Blaker recommends treating it like poison oak and scrubing the affected skin with a degreaser. Unfortunately, antihistamines don’t help. Contaminated clothing should be washed promptly, separately and carefully.
For some, the itching caused by contact continues to plague them with what is called memory responses. Symptoms can be triggered without another exposure. Poison Oak recently nailed Becker’s left wrist, his right wrist flapping with gentle itching.
Naomi Fraga, director of the California Botanical Gardens Conservation Program, said there were staff members who were treated for poodle dog exposure “it was so bad” and had to head for emergency care after a day of work. (Fraga is one of the lucky ones who are impervious to the effects.)
Despite the pain it causes, Fraga claims that Poodle-Dog is not a pest. This bushes help prevent erosion of hillsides that have been stripped of stabilisation of vegetation and provide food and cover for wildlife, including pollinators.
“It’s not like breaking in after a fire,” she said. “It’s a native plant that is part of the natural recovery process.”
However, she is not sold under a common name. “I don’t think they look like a poodle dog at all.”
Some botanists believe that poodle dogs are becoming more common in a world where climate change is driving more frequent fires.
“There are more burning chaparral acres controlled by the Poodle Dog Bush because there are more wildfires,” Lewis said.
But others are skeptical. Fraga said the increased frequency of fires has been shown to increase invasive species rather than native ones. The former often grows faster and beats the latter.
Also, plants can be killed before they have time to mature and produce many seeds, and run out of their seed banks, potentially hindering their recovery, Becker said.
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