Natural History Wanderings

DesertUSA reports

Drove up to Wildrose from Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park on Saturday. Wildflowers below Emigrant Campground on CA 190 have dried out but there are a few interesting ones blooming on the first ten miles of the road to south to Wildrose.

Around Mile 9 on the Wildrose Road there is a stretch with clumps of Desert Indian Paintbrush, whose brilliant red flowers light up the otherwise tan vegetation. Closer to Wildrose Campground, big creamy colored tufts are those of California Buckwheat, but good luck finding a place off the narrow road to park to photograph them.

Back near the intersection with CA 190, yellow Brittlebrush line the highway, interspersed with a dozen small shrubs of deep purple flowering Indigo Bush. If you look closely around the road margin some belly plants like Rattlesnake Weed (White Margin Sandmat) make an appearance. In all not a whole lot of blooming wildflowers there, as compared to the Greenwater Valley, which we will revisit in a few days.

See photos at  Death Valley Wildflower Report – DesertUSA.