Eastern California includes portions of three major desert ecosystems: the Sonoran, the Mojave, and the Great Basin. The extent and timing of spring wildflower blooms in the California deserts may vary greatly from one year to the next. Blooms are dependent upon many environmental factors; mainly winter precipitation and spring temperatures. In general, blooming begins as temperatures rise -- first at lower elevations in February and later at higher elevations in March and April. On mountain tops above 5,000 feet the blooming period may be as late as June.

Some believe that spectacular desert blooms occur about once every twenty years and others say that an ideal year comes once every 50-100 years. Most of my desert wildflower photos were taken during the spring of 2005 which was incredible! The desert bloomed really well that year because of a good amount of rain that fell during the winter months.

If you have good photos of California Desert Wildflowers to share, please do! Please give the ID and where the photo was taken.

Desert Gold and Telescope Peak, Death Valley National Park

External Links

My Desert Wildflower Page

My Trip Reports:

CA Poppy Reserve April 2006

Joshua Tree March 2005

Joshua Tree April 2005

Joshua Tree December 2007 (yes, in December things started to bloom!)

Death Valley March 2005

Anza-Borrego February 2005

Desert Wildflower Reports:

California Desert Wildflower Watch

Carol Leigh's California Wildflower Hotsheet

Flower ID Help:

USDA Plants Database

Places to see desert wildflowers:

Death Valley Wildflowers

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Mojave National Preserve Wildflowers

Joshua Tree National Park Wildflowers

California Poppy Reserve

Images

Mojave Wildflower

Ghost Flower, Sheephole Mtn

Death Valley 100 Year Bloom

Mojave Aster

Mojave Yucca

Dirt road near the CA Poppy Reserve

Fremont Phacelia

Sand Verbena & a beautiful view

Death Valley Wildflower

Desert Wildflowers Galore

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Comments

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lisae

Thanks!

Voted 10/10

I also love wild flowers and am getting a kick out of seeing your pictures. We drove through Death valley in the spring of 05. Unfortunately it was at night, so I didn't get to see the flowers. I was there this year too. Not many flowers, but you could tell the previous year had been a good year, because there were many flowers that had gone to seed.

Posted Jul 10, 2006 8:14 pm


	tarol	Re: Thanks!
	Hasn't voted	Thanks :) The desert wildflower bloom of 2005 won't likely be topped anytime soon...
		Posted Jul 10, 2006 8:30 pm

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