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April 1, 2008
Anza Borrego wildflower bonanza!
Oh man did we get to witness a nice little desert wildflower bloom on our company camping trip in Anza Borrego State Park. The best I ever saw down there was the El Nino winter of 1998 when wildflowers carpeted the desert from mountains through the valleys, but this was certainly a better than average year and the best since the relatively wet winter of 2005.
Of course wet is all relative. In the Northwest where I grew up, 60+ inches of rain was the winter norm, but down here there are years when the total rainfall is measured in the the hundreths of an inch. This year Anza Borrego got about 3 inches of rain - wow, that's a mild winter evening in Portland.
If you're not interested in plants, you should stop reading right now because I'm done with my intro chatter and I'm going to get downright nerdy and boring now as I go through roll call of stellar desert wildflowers ...
Desert Dandelion
Beautiful Ocotillo! We were a little early for the full on explosion of these blossoms in the valley area, but some were going off like this one
Ephedra virens - this is in the same genus as Chinese Ephedra (E. sinica) known as Ma Huang in the TCM pharmacopia, but has only a fraction of the speedy ephedrine found in that plant. You know what Ephedrine is, right? Ephedrine and Pseudoephedrine are the basis of countless diet pills and are used in to make Methamphetamine, but it all started with this innocuous looking little plant. Isn't it weird that a plant would make something that would mimic human adrenaline? How does that happen?
Oh and the desert poppies (Eschscholzia gyptosperma)! Desert poppies are so sweet and small compared to the their siblings the more robust and showy California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica). Desert Poppy is sorta like the weaker but sweeter art student twin of frat boy/captain of industry sibling.
Fiddleneck (Amsinckia spp.) Classic indicator of a good wildflower year in the desert, very common in washes and open valley areas
Desert Chicory (Rafinesquia neomexicana)
Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis). You know you've got it good when you wake up in the morning and see a Desert Willow above you - I love this tree! You only find this in those sweet, lower elevation deserts of far Southern California and Arizona, and it's blossoms are some of the sweetest and intoxicating of any plant anywhere. I just love this little part of the world, all these fabulous plants that you just don't find anywhere else, or at least in the U.S.
My wife Laura Boles with Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa)
Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis). This is the same Jojoba that is so popular in bodycare products these days. In fact, being the trend followers that we are, we use this in our soap. The was is extracted from the leaves and has excellent anti-oxidant/moisturizing properties.
Desert Monkey Flower (Mimulus ? come on all you wildlower nerds, you know what this is, let me know). Continuing with the common desert wash/valley wildflowers, I'm used to the big bushy Monkeyflowers that you find in Coastal Chaparral throughout California, but this is such a tiny, cute little monkeyflower - it's all flower and no plant.
Popcorn Flower (Plagiobothrys spp.)
Desert Pincusion (Scabiosa columbaria)
As I climbed higher and higher towards Sombrero peak, I began to see more Chaparral plants including Scrub Oak, White Sage and this majestic Manzanita
Here some Mountain Mohagany (Cerocarpus) near the peak
I'm so happy here! It's been so long since I've been in Anza Borrego. I've hiked the whole park south to north from the Mexican Border to I-10 in Mecca, Ca, and I just love it here, it's one of my favorite places anywhere and to see it in bloom like this for the third or fourth time in my life, I just felt high as a kite the whole time. Thanks to all my employees and friends who came on this trip - it was a magical little time for me, and I was so glad that all of you got a little taste of that sweet desert beauty. Some of you had never been in the desert before, and it's such a pleasure to be able to share this little slice of heaven with you, there's nothing else like it.
Posted by Hall in Wild Flower Reports
