Dominant trees in the riparian area vary from place to place along Rocky Canyon Creek but the most common trees are listed below. Quercusagrifolia coast live oak Salix lasiolepis arroyo willows Salix laevigata yellow willow Populusbalsamifera var. In some areas the trees along the creek are scattered and interspersed with a variety of aquatic and semi-aquatic herbs and shrubs. In other areas, the canopies of the riparian trees overlap extensively and extend along the creek banks and out over the creek beds providing dense shade. The understory on the creek banks is composed of shrubs, woody vines and herbs.
Riparian woodlands overlap with foothill woodland along the banks and on the surrounding slopes.
The vegetation of the stream channel itself is intermittent and ephemeral. The shadiest areas and sites that have standing or running water support little or no vegetation. Gravel and sandbars that receive intermittent sunlight support a sparse to locally dense vegetation. These objectives and the methods to achieve them are addressed several reports prepared by my students and me. Some of these are listed below.