Natural History Wanderings

Desert USA has a new wildflower report for Joshua Tree:

“The first part of the Mastodon Peak Trail is one of the prettiest displays of desert flowers I have seen. The draws going up from the trail are packed with Desert Blazing Star, Canterbury Bells, Primroses and Chia. The poppy fields north of I-10 are in full force and include on close look Yellow Head, Whispering Bells, Spanish Needles and Thick Leaved Ground Cherry. Last year I could not find a Ground Cherry anywhere, and this year they were easy to spot. On an excellent wildflower walk with Ranger Julia in Cottonwood wash we identified 30+ species of blooming plants including Star Gilia and the succulent Rock Live Forever.

Other than this area around the Cottonwood Visitor Center, I only saw a few scattered roadside blooms in the very dry looking park desert. The park ranger told us that this area of the park received the three inch downpour in September and another inch in February. It is interesting how this rain pattern resulted in three feet tall Canterbury Bells, three feet wide Desert Blazing Star and thousand of Chia, while park regulars such as Desert Dandelion and Lupine are sparse and smaller than usual. Fortunate to have this diverse pocket of flowers in an overall dry year.”

See all of DesertUSA reports and photos at: http://www.desertusa.com/wildflo/wildupdates.html