Flora and Natural History
The Monterey Peninsula has a high degree of species endemism. Additionally, it presents a unique combination of species due to overlap of species with more northerly versus more southerly ranges. The Monterey Peninsula is influenced by a marine climate that is pronounced due to the upwelling of cold water from the Monterey submarine canyon. At the National Weather Service's Climate Station at 385 feet elevation in the western part of the City of Monterey, average daily highs range from 15.5°C (60°F) in January to 22°C (72°F) in September, while average daily lows range from 6.5°C (43°F) in January to 11.5°C (53°F) in September. Average rainfall is 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per year, with 90% falling during November through April. During summer, fog drip is a primary source of moisture for plants that would otherwise not be able to persist with such low summer precipitation. Some taxa, such as the coastal closed-cone pines (which include Monterey Pine) and the Monterey Cypress are relict stands, i.e. species that once extended more widely in the mesic climate of the late Pleistocene epoch, but then retreated to small pockets of cooler and wetter conditions along the coast ranges during the hotter, drier early and middle Holocene epoch between 6000 and 2000 BC.
A variety of natural habitats are found on the Monterey Peninsula: littoral zone and sand dunes; closed cone pine forest; and Monterey Cypress. During the early 1900s, Willis Linn Jepson characterized the forests on the Monterey Peninsula as the "most important silva ever", and encouraged Samuel F. B. Morse of the Del Monte Properties Company to explore the possibilities of preserving the unique forest communities. The dune area is also important, as it hosts endangered species such as the vascular plants Seaside birds beak and Eastwoods Ericameria. The closed cone pine forest habitat is dominated by Monterey pine, Knobcone Pine and Bishop Pine, and contains the rare Monterey manzanita and endangered Hickman's potentilla and Yadon's piperia; rare plants inhabiting chaparral habitat in Monterey are: Hickman's onion and Sandmat manzanita. Other rare plants on the peninsula are: Hutchinson's larkspur, Tidestrom lupine; Gardner's yampah and Monterey Knotweed.
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