CALIFORNIA DESERT BLOOMS DEFY ALL ODDS

CALIFORNIA DESERT FLOWERS

California deserts are loaded with wildflowers that are particularly sweet. Overcoming adversities due to scarce water, abundant sun, and extreme temperatures, they triumph. Their beauty powers through.

The Mojave and Anza-Borrego deserts yield a colorful bounty.  From individual blossoms to massive super blooms, like the one this recent spring, California desert flower feed the mind, body and spirit of humans and animals alike.

Check out the desert flowers we’ve gathered for you.

ANTELOPE VALLEY POPPY RESERVE

Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in the Mojave Desert is loaded with blooms of California poppies, the state flower.

Other wildflowers found here include the owl's clover, lupine, goldfields, cream cups and coreopsis. Best time to see them in full regalia is in early spring.

MOJAVE MOUND CACTUS

This California desert flower has many names: Hedgehog/Claret Cup/Mojave Mound Cactus / Kingcup Cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus). The flowers stay open at night, unlike many other species of cacti whose flowers close in the evening, and they last for 3 - 5 days in the Mojave Desert.

Some Native American groups collected the cacti's stems and turned their mash into sweet cakes.

MOJAVE MONARDELLA

Mojave monardella (Monardella exilis) is an annual desert flower in the mint family (Lamiaceae). The plant is endemic to California, in the Mojave Desert. It is also found growing in the Antelope Valley as well as southwestern woodlands.

It has white flowers with green with purple tinges, during a bloom period from April to September.     

DESERT CANDLE

The Desert Candle (Caulanthus inflatus), is a flower in the family Brassicaceae, related to broccoli and mustard greens. It is native to the Mojave Desert.

It looks like a beautiful yellow candle with reddish-purple blossoms forming the “flame.”

GILIA

There are between 25 and 50 species of flowering Gilia growing in desert or semi-desert in California. The flowers can be blue, white, pink or yellow. Butterflies love to feed upon them.

GRAPE SODA LUPINE

Like a multisensory desert mirage, the Grape Soda Lupine (Lupinus excubitus) looks and smells like grape soda!

Stalks of bright purple blossoms spike up from gray green shrub foliage which spread in broad clumps across the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Park desert floors.

MARIPOSA LILY

There are over of varieties of Mariposa lilies (Calochortus), 28 of which are endemic to California, growing in dry grasslands, open chaparral, and semi deserts. They bloom in white, yellow, pink, purple, blue, or combo colors. Their insides of the petals are often very 'hairy' which aids in pollen dispersion.

The word Calochortus is derived from Greek and means "beautiful grass. The bulbs of many species were eaten both raw and cooked, by Native Americans.

Read more about Desert & Beach Beauties. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.

IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by doreen ODonovan. “Pick cactus sunset.” Anza-Borrego State Park. CA.
2. Image: by Bob Wick. “Amboy Crater.” Courtesy of Bureau of Land Management California.
3. Image: by BorisFromStockdale. California Poppies in the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.
4. Image by Saintrain . Wildflowers at Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.
5. Image: by Alan. “Cactus Flower II.” Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
6. Image: by Don Davis. “Monardella exilis, Mojave Monardella.” Eastern Antelope Valley. Los Angeles, CA.
7. Image: by Dagmar Collins. “Desert Candle, Caulanthus inflatus.” CA.
8. Image: by tdlucas5000. “Desert Wildflowers.” Gilia with cool blue pollen. California.
9. Image: by tdlucas5000. “Grape Soda Lupine.” CA.
10. Image: by tdlucas5000. “Big ol' Lupine.” Grape Soda Lupine. Los Angeles, CA.
11. Image: by Don Davis. “Calochortus striatus; Alkali Mariposa Lily.” CA.
12. Image: by Philip Bouchard. “Butterfly Mariposa Lily.” CA.
13. Image: by Jim Dollar. “Desert Flowers.” Claret Cup Cactus. CA.
14. Image: by Vishal Patel. “Hot in pink.” Christmas cactus flowers. CA.