Natural History Wanderings

Anza-Borrego Natural History Association reports

The 2015 Spring annual wildflowers show is definitely underway with eye-popping displays along the Coyote Canyon jeep trail (actually, any car can drive it) from the north end of diGiorgio Road to Desert Gardens (beyond which the driving becomes more of a problem).

Right now, the star of the show is Peirson’s Brown-eyed Primrose (Camissonia claviformis ssp. peirsonii), a white flower sometimes with a little pink in the Borrego Valley, yellow in the southern desert. It’s safe to say that thousands of these plants can be seen over a 4-mile stretch.

In the lower part, in the northern reaches of Borrego Valley, the flowers are joined by such favorites as Sand Verbena (Abronia villosa), Dune Primrose (Oenothera deltoides), and Arizona Lupine. Bladder Pod (Dithyrea californica), reported in flower on January 30, is now showing its namesake seedpods as well as flowers.

In Desert Gardens, the Brown-eyed Primrose plants are joined by a cousin, California Evening Primrose (Camissonia californica) in numbers too large to count. Also noted in Desert Gardens were Forget-Me-Nots (Cryptantha angustifolia), Desert Dandelion (Malacothrix glabrata), and Desert Chicory (Rafinesquia neomexicana).