Point Lobos cliffs and meadows support a prolific number of wildflowers in the spring and early summer. The area is said to be one of the premier locations for studying the botany of the northern California coastline. As docent Rosemary Donlon summarizes, coastal bluff is often considered as a sub-community of northern coastal scrub. The plants of this community must be adapted to extreme conditions: intense sun or dense fog, very shallow soils or bare rock, nearly vertical rock faces, direct salt spray, and wind. The adaptations of the plant species to this environment are a further refinement of the northern coastal scrub species' adaptations. Indeed, many of the species are the same, although the size of the individual plants may be greatly reduced.