Natural History Wanderings

Updated 1/25/14

Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association has three new wildflower reports

Pinyon Springs Forks .A loop in a couple of steep washes, just below and up to the Wilson Trail. A scenic hike with some challenging parts. And still flowers after almost 2 months without any rain. Wild Canterbury Bells at every boulder. The Parish’s Golden-Eyes where the best we’ve see so far. Chia are so big you hardly recognize them. And the Bush Monkey flower (yellow).

Pacific Crest Loop. Flowers seen included Wild Canterbury Bells Phacelia minor, Cryptantha, Cryptantha species,and Thick-Leaved Ground-Cherry, Physalis crassifolia

First Crossing of Coyote Creek  all of its repositioned creek water and sand. Note how the lower part of the First Crossing sign is buried in new sand.

In past years, water to First Crossing was either shallow or non-existent. Today, the water meanders well south of the jeep trail.

Overall, the Borrego Valley where the creek flows look depressingly dry. Overall, the outlook for spring wildflowers is not good. A great exception extends about ten yards south of the point where theCoyote Canyon jeep road crosses the re-aligned creek. The plants here show what water can do. Before showing you the pictures, I should say that for most people I would consider the drive here to be 4WD only. I myself parked at Desert Gardens and walked the rest of the way, about a quarter of a mile,which is hardly strenuous. I am sure I saw more flowers by walking than I would have by driving.   Before I reached the water of the creek, I saw a large Cheesebush shrub, Ambrosia salsola var. salsola, in flower in the dry creek bed. The only bad news is that Cheesebush has some of the smallest and least-noticed flowers in the desert. It’s the fruit, which appears later, that gets noticed.

 

I also was impressed with the size and color of a Sandpaper Plant, Petalonyx thurberi, which is one of our few plants to flower in summer. What was it doing looking so good in January? The flowers are not show-stoppers.

The stars of the show were the Emory’s Rock Daisy, Perityle emoryi(an Asteraceae), plants beside the creek, upwards of four feet tall, with hundreds of white flowers with yellow disk flowers in the center …

I also noticed this Arizona lupine plant … and a rather mature Phacelia distans, each the only one of its kind …

I also noticed a few, just a very few very large and healthy,Camissonia claviformis ssp. peirsonii plants (I think the NatureCenter people call it Brown-eyed Primrose, but Peirson’s Browneyes would be better) and Dithyrea californica (Spectacle Pod), one of the good flowers  of the Mustard family. This is usually one of the first to flower in Spring.

Also along the way, I noticed several Psorothamnus emoryi, Dyeweed, with smallish flowers. Many of the plants were half buried in new sand. Down by the citrus groves, maybe 100 yards north of the DiGiorgio Road blacktop, I drove past a tobacco plant, Nicotiana, and I am sorry I didn’t get the species (there are two or three in the desert) and I didn’t take a picture.

See photos and older reports at: Anza-Borrego Wildflowers

DesertUSA also has an Anza-Borrego Wildflower Report

Some wildflowers are being spotted in Culp Valley area at the higher elevations, still very dry and sunny.

via Desert Wildflower Reports for Anza Borrego Desert State Park by DesertUSA.