Alternatives to West Cliff landscaping

ON GARDENING

Seaside woolly sunflower (Eriophyllum staechadifolium). This drought-tolerant perennial herb grows along the coast from Santa Barbara County northward to Oregon, as well as on the Channel Islands. The gray-green leaves are deeply lobed and have rolled under edges. The yellow and showy flower heads have both ray and disk florets. PHOTOS COURTESY TOM KARWIN

Common yarrow (Achillea millefolium). This native plant is durable and easy to grow in a wide range of soil types, with low moisture requirements. It reseeds and spreads quickly, making it a good groundcover plant for lawn replacement. Its abundant white flowers attract bees, butterflies and other insects. It is a staple in native pollinator gardens throughout the state. It has a long history as a medicinal plant.

Image

As a frequent visitor to West Cliff Drive, I have developed a preference for public landscaping. Stephen Kessler’s recent column praising the ice plant on West Cliff Drive has encouraged two effective letters to the editor and my response.

I wrote about the ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis) two years ago. To review background info, visit the archived column at santacruzsentinel.com and search for “Invasion of the ‘Pigfaces’” (one of its common names).

Today’s column compares ice plants with alternative plants, referring to various criteria. We then envision reimagined landscaping for West Cliff Drive’s future.

The image gallery displays California native plants growing naturally near the Long Marine Lab, a snapshot of an ice plant on West Cliff Drive and an AI-generated landscaping concept.

Horticulture

Ice plant grows well in the Monterey Bay area and requires minimal maintenance once established. Many other plants have comparable cultivation needs, including those native to California, South Africa (such as the ice plant) and other Mediterranean climate habitats.

Politics

Kessler suggested that some might want to “deport” the ice plant due to “anti-immigrant sentiment.” His idea makes no sense. California gardeners often enjoy plants imported from various parts of the globe. Mediterranean climate plants are easy to grow, as are those from Mexico, Japan, England and other regions.

Environment

The local climate is conducive to the spread of ice plants, which grow vigorously and are highly adaptable. They are highly invasive in Mediterranean climates and will deny other plants access to essential resources, including nutrients, water, light and space. Different plants can be invasive for the same reasons. Mediterranean climate plants grow normally in our climate and are rarely invasive. Due to its invasiveness, the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California Invasive Plant Council and the California Native Plant Society recommend removing ice plants.

Ecology

The invasiveness of the ice plant limits wildlife access to favored native plants. Still, the ice plant supports some wildlife. According to Wikipedia, “Fruits are eaten by baboons, rodents, porcupines, and antelopes, who also disperse the seeds. The clumps provide shelter for snails, lizards, and skinks.” That entry also notes snakes “are often found in Carpobrotus clumps, where they ambush the small rodents attracted by the fruits.”

The city presumably limited the original installation of the ice plants to the oceanside of West Cliff Drive. With wildlife action, the plants encroached on areas at the edge of the Lighthouse Field State Beach.

Physical benefits

Local historian Ross Gibson wrote that around 1963, the city planted ice plants along West Cliff Drive due to the plant’s drought tolerance, fire suppression, cliff conservation, erosion control and low maintenance. While these were rational objectives for installing this plant on West Cliff Drive, California native plants and other options have physical benefits that are at least as strong.

The ice plant has no value in protecting the coast from wave action, and the city could easily minimize street-level erosion (caused by wind or rain) with any alternative plant. Because the ice plant is shallow-rooted and spreads laterally, storms can make its mats slip or detach.

Aesthetics

The original installation of the ice plant on West Cliff Drive was partly motivated by the plant’s attractive flowers, which bloom from April to late summer. While many viewers enjoy the blossoms, a great range of other suitable plants for this area would provide a delightful range of colors and, with seasonal selections, display visual appeal during a longer part of the year.

Another aesthetic consideration is that West Cliff Drive has excessive ice plants, with very few alternatives in most of the landscaped beds. There is too much of it!

Reimagined landscaping for West Cliff Drive

The city could significantly improve West Cliff Drive’s landscaping by replacing the ice plant with natural coastal plants native to California.

The restored landscaping would be effective for erosion control (which is not a problem at the street level), drought-tolerant, support the native wildlife and be visually attractive.

The city could install many native California plants on West Cliff Drive. A quick search of the California Native Plant Society’s plant database (calscape.org) filters for “Coastal Scrub” yields 881 results. A second search for “Bank Stabilization” yields 286 results.

Given the numerous garden beds along the drive, an imaginative approach could result in separate designs for the beds, providing a series of galleries of California native plants. Each bed could feature the colony of a single species, two or three species that work well together or native plant communities.

This plant gallery could be fascinating for walkers on West Cliff Drive and a feast for the wildlife.Because West Cliff Drive encompasses state- and city-owned properties, each is responsible for separate landscape decision-making and costs.

On the inland side of West Cliff Drive, the state-owned landscaping is within Lighthouse Field State Beach, extending from Pelton Avenue to a few yards from Columbia Street.

On the ocean side, the city of Santa Cruz’s landscaping extends for many blocks from about the corner of Lighthouse Field (Pelton Avenue) to the entrance to Natural Bridges State Beach (Swanton Boulevard).

For this column, we focus on the city-owned property.

The city of Santa Cruz’s “West Cliff Adaptation and Management Plan” (April 2021) includes a long-term goal to restore the native habitat “by removing invasive ice plant, followed by replanting with a diverse palette of locally sourced native plant species.”

The project’s two stages will require considerable planning and substantial costs. The city’s priority will reflect community support and funding opportunities. We will monitor progress.

To explore the landscaping possibilities, we prompted ChatGPT to generate a design for a small area. This column presents its design, including these plants:

• Dwarf coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis ‘Pigeon Point’). Low-growing evergreen shrub with a dense, mounding habit. Excellent for erosion control and fire resistance.

• Seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus). Compact perennial with spoon-shaped leaves and daisy-like lavender-pink flowers. Attracts pollinators and thrives in the salty air.

• Point Reyes ceanothus (Ceanothus gloriosus ‘Anchor Bay’). Evergreen ground cover with dark green leaves and profuse blue spring flowers. Excellent for stabilizing slopes and tolerating wind.

• Bearberry / kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). Spreading groundcover manzanita with small, glossy leaves and pink urn-shaped flowers. Low-flammable and great for sandy soils.

Hopefully, there will be more to come on West Cliff Drive.

This week in the garden

Read the brief Weed Report for ice plant (hottentot fig) by visiting tinyurl.com/37krjtcc to review the University of California’s methods for removing ice plants.

Enjoy your garden!

Tom Karwin is a past president of Friends of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and the Monterey Bay Iris Society, a past president and lifetime member of the Monterey Bay Area Cactus and Succulent Society, a Lifetime UC Master Gardener (certified 1999-2009), past board member of the Santa Cruz Hostel Society and active with the Pacific Horticultural Society and other garden-related societies. To review the archive of recent On Gardening columns, visit santacruzsentinel.com and search “Karwin.” Go to ongardening.com to review columns from 2012-2020 (and soon) from 2025. Send comments or questions by email to gardening@karwin.com.