Prominent coast adjacent species include: California sagebrush and brittlebush, along with California buckwheat and Munz's sage. At the southern areas of this coastal ecoregion, cacti and succulents can be found, such as: Shaw's agave, coastal dudleya, coastal cholla, golden cereus, and other prickly pear, Yucca and Dudleya species. Some of the endemic plants to the ecoregion's southern coast zone include: San Diego thornmint, San Diego ambrosia and San Diego barrel cactus.
Slopes
Higher up from the shoreline the slopes are densely covered in Chaparral shrubs, such as: chamise, and many California lilac and manzanita species. Chaparral Yucca is commonplace throughout the climate zone.
Trees
Still higher are mountain conifers such as the huge sugar pine, ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, Coulter pine, and incense cedar. Endemic cypress species include: the Monterey cypress, Gowen cypress, and Sargent's cypress. Another endemic tree is the rare Torrey pine, which is only native to the coastal bluffs in Torrey Pines State Reserve near San Diego, and off the coast on Santa Rosa Island. Riparian canyon bottoms can have California sycamores. California oak woodlands are at many elevations in less xeric locations, with species such as the coast live oak. Valley oaks once covered the adjacent sheltered plains, such in the Los Angeles basin and San Fernando Valley. Southern California black walnut remnant populations are on some north faces of the Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Susana Mountains, and the San Jose Hills.
The Channel Islands are mostly covered in coastal sage and chamise chaparral with some oak woodland including endemic and/or rare: buckwheats, oaks, and Dudleya species restricted to these islands.
Other habitats
In and around these different habitats this diverse ecoregion also contains 'patches' of stream-riverside riparian zone oak-sycamore woodlands, native and introduced species grasslands, and serpentine barrens. Seasonal wetland habitats include intermittent creeks, ponds, vernal pools, and floodplains. Wildfires are part of the natural fire ecology throughout the ecoregion. Habitats of this hot, dry coast must survive and revive following the regular forest fires, and the dominant plant species have adapted to do that.
This attractive coastline is highly vulnerable to urban, recreational, and agricultural development and only 15% of original habitat is intact. Habitats are vulnerable to livestock grazing, which has removed much native vegetation on the Channel Islands, such as Santa Cruz where sheep were grazed for over 100 years. Another threat ironically is fire control, which only allows the amount of dry material in the forest to build up, resulting eventually in massive fires. However, in many chaparral regions such as the Santa Monica Mountains, increased fire frequency is the larger concern because fire return intervals in mature chaparral communities should be 30–150 years, unlike much of the region which often has return intervals of 20 years or less. There are patches of coastal sage scrub in Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, the Santa Monica Mountains, the San Joaquin Hills near Laguna Beach, and the Irvine Ranch in Orange County, California. Protected areas include the Torrey Pines State Reserve, the Santa Rosa Plateau Reserve, and Santa Cruz Island. Important Bird Areas in Mexico include Isla Guadalupe and Isla Cedros, and parts of Sierra de Juárez and Sierra de San Pedro Mártir. Additional patches of coastal sage scrub exist in Southern California in the Angeles National Forest.
