Wildflower Flourishes and Flops

MOHAVE DESERT

Below left: 1964, a very wet year.
Below right: 1972, after 3 years with almost no rain.
(The views are in different directions, so it is not the same mountain range in all four images.)

Above left: 1977, the rains returned, but there is less diversity of flowers than in 1964.
Above right: 1998, another wet year, but instead of native wildflowers this area has been taken over by a pernicious exotic weed, Sahara mustard (Brassica tournefortii). (Some nearby areas had good flowers.) First discovered in the United States only in the 1930s, it has by now invaded most of the dry sandy areas of the Sonoran Desert, often to the nearly complete exclusion of native annuals. Such invasive alien species cause immeasurable damage to natural habitats.

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A MORE COMPLETE HISTORY OF MOHAVE BLOOMS

Twentynine Palms rainfall

Sand flats east of Twentynine Palms in spring 1964. This was my first springtime trip to the desert, when I was in high school. Naturally I assumed that it looked like this every year. I didn't see another such display until 1973. If you hear about a great wildflower bloom, drop everything and go!

The Kelso Dunes. The small brown plants between the creosote bushes are drying skeleton weeds (Eriogonum sp.), the only annual that was common this year. Even to produce this small display the dunes there must have been more rain than at 29 Palms 100 miles to the south (but Death Valley 100 miles north also got less than an inch). Compare this scene with 1973.

Death Valley rainfall.

Near Saratoga Springs, south end of Death Valley. (Compare with 1973.)

Twentynine Palms rainfall

Two images from the Ord-Newberry-Rodman Mountains area southeast of Barstow, CA. The first one was taken in June; a May rain greened up the creosote bushes and caused some shrubs (desert senna, Senna armata) to flower, but no annuals responded.

The sand plains east of Twentynine Palms shown earlier.

Twentynine Palms rainfall

Three scenes in Pleasant Valley, Joshua Tree National Park (it was a National Monument in 1973). The first shows that the wildflowers are patchy; the faint yellow in the bottom of the valley is a couple of square miles of desert coreopsis (Coreopsis bigelovii), shown closeup in the second image. The third image, a few miles from the second, is a field of fiddleneck (Amsinckia sp.). For every showy desert wildflower there are at least a dozen inconspicuous species.

Dune evening primrose (Oenothera deltoidea) in the Kelso Dunes and a field of desert dandelion (Malacothrix glabrata) on a nearby flat of more gravelly soil.

Death Valley rainfall

Near Saratoga Springs, south end of Death Valley (compare with 1971.) Only the desert sunflower (Geraea canescens) shows in the vista, but the closeup (big file!) reveals several other species of annuals, especially violet caterpillar weed (Phacelia crenulata).

More hillsides covered with desert sunflower in March. There is still snow on 11,000 foot Telescope Peak across the valley. The valley floor is below sea level -- the white covering there is salt.

Twentynine Palms rainfall

Near the Kelso dunes on a bajada of the Providence Mountains.

Twentynine Palms rainfall

North bajada of the Newberry Mountains southeast of Barstow, CA. The conspicuous yellow sun cups (Camissonia brevipes) conceals the more muted violet caterpillar weed.

Sand flats east of Twentynine Palms, CA.

Twentynine Palms rainfall

Nopah Mountains in the Death Valley region. The lavender flowers are Phacelia fremontii.

Northwestern Mohave Desert near China Lake, CA. Desert candle (Caulanthus inflatus) is one of the few annuals that does not also occur in the Sonoran Desert.

A field of desert coreopsis near China Lake with an approaching thunderstorm - a rare Mohave event.

An extensive , dense field of desert sunflowers near Barstow, CA. This patch was about four miles wide and three feet tall, growing on normally barren desert pavement (notice the few creosote bushes protruding above the flowers). Click here for a really big image.

Twentynine Palms rainfall

Joshua tree forest on Edwards Air Force Base. No evidence of annuals here.

Some annuals bloomed near Joshua Tree National Monument (now N. Park).

Twentynine Palms rainfall

The Newberry Mountains and adjacent ranges southeast of Barstow, CA were almost completely carpted with sun cups. Many other wildflowers were present but their colors were mostly swamped by the sea of yellow. Click here to see some of the other species in a huge (500K) image.

Along Interstate 40 between Barstow and Needles, CA on the border between the Sonoran and Mohave deserts. This blanket of desert sunflowers was 10 miles wide and 40 miles long.

The Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles made a great show.

The above four images from the Death Valley region contributed by Ron Fridlind reveal a widespread, spectacular bloom as occurs very rarely.

These three images contributed by Stephen Ingram are also from Death Valley.

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Here are the full rainfall tables for two Mohave Desert sites

WINTER RAINFALL DATA, DEATH VALLEY