Wildflowers

In ordinary years when winter and early spring rains are scanty, the annual flowering plants are few; inasmuch as they are in no particular way adapted to endure shortage of water, they wilt and die a few weeks after they have sprung, as if by magic, from the barren earth. As though trying to make up for this poor showing, every few years comes an abundance of rain and there results such a wealth of blossoms that almost every foot of sand or gravelly soil is hidden beneath a blanket of flowers.

Edmund Jaeger

 

Desert five-spot, desert paintbrush, desert mariposa lily and beaver-tail cactus blooms.

Benjamin Chemel

 

While the magical Mojave wildflower show is by no means an annual event, a few well-timed soaking storms will produce a memorable spring wildflower bloom. Find out about wildflower blooms in 2013 by going to wildflower observations. Wildflower blooms are reported at Joshua Tree, and Death Valley National Park.

Find out what's blooming and where throughout the desert, by going to Desert Wildflower Reports and/or The Theodore Payne Wildflower hotline http://www.theodorepayne.org/hotline.html.

Check the chart below to help plan your wildflower viewing trip. Due to variations in temperature caused by increasing altitude, peak wildflower viewing advances upslope at the rate of about 1,000 feet every two weeks.

 

	February	March	April	May	June
yuccas		lower elevations	below 3000 feet
			higher elevations	above 3000 feet
Joshua trees			higher elevations	above 3000 feet
annuals	lower	elevations below	3000 feet
		higher elevations	above 3000 feet
cacti		lower elevations	below 3000 feet
			higher elevations	above 3000 feet