If you go to the right places and work at seeing them over a number of hikes, you can see quite a few species in bloom right now. It should continue to be in bloom for some time. Sanjiv Nanda reports that he and Alan Parks found at least two dozen, perhaps three dozen, plants of pygmy cedar, Peucephyllum schottii, in full bloom, along with dozens of desert tobacco, Nicotiana obtusifolia, in the slot canyon that is north of the end of the middle fork of Palm Wash on 2 March 2022.įishhook cactus, Mammillaria dioica, has been blooming since 29 January 2022, and has been observed in bloom in a number of locations. There are a small number of much bigger plants that germinated from the October rains in a limited number of places, such as a few large rock daisy, Perityle emoryi, plants at Second Crossing and the Box Canyon north of Third Crossing. Even Glorietta Canyon has almost nothing in bloom. The end of the pavement of Di Giorgio Road appears just as desolate. Even in Borrego Springs, there is no germination at all in the hairy sunflower, Geraea canescens, field along Henderson Canyon Road just west of the Pegleg Monument. But it is a very bad year in most of the desert floor east of Borrego Springs, where there aren't any annuals at all, due to a lack of enough rainfall to germinate their seeds. We are grateful that we have species in bloom in places west of Borrego Springs! At least this is not a severe-drought "bad" year there. And in a few places, there is no annual germination at all, but the shrubs are blooming! It is a very odd year in that in many places, there are annuals in bloom at the same time as the shrubs still appear in their summer dormant mode. See plot of the number of species in bloom per trip versus date for seven previous years from 2008 to 2015 (see also additional plots and background information on the plots). This is the least-floriferous "good" year in the last 20 years, with "only" 54 and 60 species in bloom seen on the last two hikes, compared to the ~60 to ~100 species in bloom on a single hike at this time of year in a typical good year. As always, there are a few annual species, such as Chaenactis carphoclinia, that will only begin bloom after most of the other annual species are in seed. Nearly all of the usual annual species have begun bloom at those elevations, although most plants are small, with fewer blooms than they have in good years. We are now at full bloom at the lowest elevations that received a decent amount of rain this year, at about 1,000 feet elevation in the canyon mouths on the west side of Borrego Springs. Latest Summary of Bloom Status Summary as of 15 March 2022 Click on the pix to go to the full iNat observation. Both pix were taken on 11 March 2022 in the "Canyon north of Henderson Canyon". Right: ghost flower, Mohavea confertiflora. Note the dead stem in fruit from a previous year towering over the plants of this year. Left: Bigelow's monkeyflower, Diplacus bigelovii. Links to Other Webpages on Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Bloomsīackground Information for Bloom Reports from the Anza-Borrego Desertįig. And I haven't had those palo verde in my yard or close to here for a long time.Bloom Reports from the Anza-Borrego Desert: 2021-2022īloom Reports from Individual Hikes This Season "Just around my house, I have all of these palo verde trees that are a foot high. And they will just wait there, they can be there for years and then, you know, they'll take off," said McElhatton. "A lot of desert plants, the seeds can be in the soil for a very long time before they germinate. Seeds lay dormant waiting for flooding rains Only 32% of the state is in "severe drought," which is down from 92% since before the storms. Already the state shed the " extreme and exceptional" drought classifications. Roads washed out, mudslides took homes, sinkholes swallowed cars, and flash flooding claimed over a dozen lives.Īfter so much tragedy and loss, Californians are finally getting a glimpse at the silver lining. Averaged out, that would mean that every square inch of the state received over 11 inches of rain. The intense rain and snowmakers dropped 32 trillion gallons of water across the Golden State. RELENTLESS CALIFORNIA ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS DROP 32 TRILLION GALLONS OF WATER OVER 3 WEEKS Dune evening primrose near Borrego Springs.
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