Natural History Wanderings

DesertUSA has the following reports with photos for Southern California:

Riverside County, from Palm Desert up Hwy 74 to Hwy 371, down to Aguanda and Hwy 79 until Temecula came into sight, where I turned around and went home. It’s a wonderful drive through a variety of habitats, with a nice variety of wildflowers along all three highways. The best spots were along Hwy 371, where I found yellow pincushion flowers, Coulter’s lupine, California poppies, California bells, Collar lupine, miniature lupine, Lemmon’s linathus, Popcorn flowers, carpets of Goldfields, Groundpinks, Fiddleneck, yucca, desert rock pea… Along Hwy 79 I found Baby blue eyes, Red maids, Chaparral nightshade, Black sage, Stinging lupine, Broadleaf or Arroyo lupine (not sure which), Camissonia species… Along Hwy 74 one of the few wildflowers I was able to get out and photograph was Bajada lupine, making it a six lupine species day. Roadside wildflowers I wasn’t able to pull over for along Hwy 74 included Arizona lupine, Ocotillo, Chuparosa, Beavertail cactus, Brittlebush…

 Hwy 223 in Arvin, Ca. has some nice wildflower displays. See photos as DesertUSA

See photos and more reports at: Desert Wildflower report Southern California by DesertUSA.