SUPER SUPERBLOOMS NOW
SUPER BLOOM
Spring is busting out big time, with billions of blossoms blanketing large swaths of California wilderness in the most intense super bloom ever in recorded history. In fact, wildflower blooms anywhere near this magnitude are extremely rare.
Thanks to an especially rainy and snowy autumn and winter, more flower seeds are germinating and roots are spreading, flowers are popping up in sweeping splashes of color in meadows, deserts, mountainsides and coastlines.
The flowers are so numerous, bright, and intense, NASA astronaut Rex Walheim and his colleague Glenn Graham, director of Safety and Mission Assurance and pilot, could see them clearly from the windows of their T-34 mission support aircraft as they flew high above Antelope Valley. Orange poppies, California’s native flower, just went crazy. Check out the nearby Poppy Reserve.
The last super bloom was in 2017, but usually they occur only once every decade. See how it’s all shaping up this year below.
The first wildflower blooms begin in southern California in early March. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a particularly gorgeous place to see the debutante mega flower fields. More than 200 flowering plant species are on epic display at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in eastern San Diego County.See yellow brittlebush, purple desert lavender, flaming-red ocotillo, flowering barrel cactus, lupine, and phacelia. The park has its own wildflower page.
Coachella Valley Preserve is decked out with wild lupine and desert sunflowers.
Joshua Tree National Park, at a higher elevation, blooms a bit later, peaking in June, with bladder pod, brittlebush, creosote, lupine, beavertail cacti, Mojave yucca and, of course, poppies. Check out the Bajada Nature Trail.
Head up to Malibu’s Point Mugu State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains. Hike the Chumash Trail to get to mariposa lilies, chocolate lilies and blue globe gilia.
Travel up to the Central Coast as spring rolls along, where wildflowers will heavily bloom through mid-April. The Carrizo Plain National Monument contains the single largest native grasslands in California. In addition to oodles of poppies, numerous rare and endangered species such as yellow San Joaquin woolly-threads, pale pink kern mallow, and burgundy and white California jewelflowers. Montaña de Oro State Park serves up sticky monkey flowers, wild radish, and yellow mustard blossoms.
The Sierra Foothills bloom through late April. The 3,300-acre mesa created by ancient lava flows is home to the North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve, where brodiaea, Sierra primroses, fiesta flowers, fairy lanterns, baby blue eyes, and Indian pinks dance in the breeze.
Next, it’s the San Francisco Bay Area’s turn to shine, blooming well into mid-June. Point Reyes National Seashore coastal bluffs pop with poppies, owl’s clover, tidy tips, checkerbloom, paintbrush, and Douglas iris, while Russian Ridge Preserve shows off mule’s ears, poppies, lupine, goldfields, Johnny jump-ups, and blue-eyed grass.
The High Sierra peaks in June and July. Western peony, pink shooting stars, and blue camas lilies carpet the land. Check out Carson Pass Trail where volcanic soil nourishes scarlet gilia, Indian paintbrush, blue flax, and sierra lilies.
Shasta Cascade doesn’t begin to peak until mid-July. In fact snow can be found in Lassen Volcanic National Park in summer. Walk the 10,457-foot summit trail for incredible vistas framed with silverleaf lupine and endemic Lassen Peak smelowskia. Mill Creek Falls Trail winds through a giant field of bright yellow mountain mule’s ears.
If you want to follow the blooms throughout the spring and summer, you can check update reports by the Theodore Payne Foundation and check the California State Parks wildflowers page.
Read more about New Blossoms all this week on BeautifulNow. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.
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