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| Geraea canescens (Desert Gold), the most common wildflower species at low elevations in Death Valley National Park. Photo taken at Devil's Cornfield. |
Deserts present formidable challenges for plants and animals
to craft an existence. Access to water is chief among these challenges. Not
only must desert organisms be tolerant of lack of water for many months of the
year, they must also be capable of capitalizing on the rare and unpredictable opportunities
to acquire water when the rains do come.
Death Valley is the hottest and driest location in North America . Lying just east of the Sierra Nevada in
eastern California and western Nevada , it is part of the Mojave
Desert . The Sierras catch most of the precipitation in the storms
that roll in from the Pacific bound for California .
Little rain or snow makes it past the formidable granite blockade of the
Sierras. One of the largest national parks in the US
encompasses Death Valley, along with part of Panamint Valley Death Valley National Park
But rain does come to the desert occasionally. On 18 October
2015, a significant storm drenched the valley, setting the stage for the burst
of wildflower color that we are now observing in early 2016. That heavy rainfall
event, totaling about as much rain in one day as the valley averages in a year,
signaled to a dormant seed bank of desert annuals that this was their chance to
germinate and complete another generation. Months later, the wildflower bloom
began.
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| Left: Atrichoseris platyphylla, or the "Gravel Ghost". The flowers (technically inflorescences since this species is an aster) are a few centimeters in diameter and they sit atop long spindly stems. Photo from Scotty Castle Rd. Right: Mohavea from Panamint Valley. |
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| Phacelia sp. The bold blooms of this species were particularly common along roadsides. |
Being aware of the current El Niño in the Pacific, I had already
planned a trip to Death Valley months ago with
a hope that the floral display this spring would be impressive. However, when I
started to hear media reports in late February of the “superbloom” sweeping Death Valley , I decided to move my visit up a few weeks
on the calendar. With a dry and warm February in northern California ,
it seemed that spring had really come early to California this year and I didn’t want to
miss my chance!
Most of the flowers during my trip in the first week of
March could be seen from below sea-level to about 3000 ft elevation,
including in Death Valley and Panamint
Valley Wildrose Road and
Indian paintbrushes (Castilleja) and
others near Daylight
Pass Badwater Road area, a part of the park
that I did not visit. However, there were relatively dense concentrations of yellow
blooms of Desert Gold (Geraea canescens)
near Furnace Creek and Salt Creek.
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| The beautiful Eremalche rotundifolia (Malvaceae). |
My favorite species in bloom was a small mallow, Eremalche rotundifolia, commonly called
the “desert five-spot”. The delicate pink petals of this flower form a cup, so
one has to peer inside from the top to see the rest of the flower. From that
perspective, one can see that each petal has a dark red splotch at its base. The
desert five spot was not particularly common in the areas I visited, but it occurred
in both Panamint Valley
and Death Valley between Furnace Creek and
Stove-pipe wells. Another mallow, also with very showy flowers hosting
peach-colored petals (the Apricot Mallow), appeared to be even more rare; I
only observed two plants during the two day trip.
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| Sphaeralcea ambigua, Apricot Mallow. |
Deserts host their own beauty – from clear night skies to
fascinating geological landscapes to bright bursts of wildflower color. The
paradox of life is transparent in the desert – a place where harshness and
beauty plainly co-exist.
References
Baldwin GB et al.
(ed). 2012. The Jepson Manual. 2nd ed.
University of California
Press, Berkeley , CA
Milliard D. 2016. Wildflower update 2016. National Park
Service website.
Munz PA. 1962. California
Desert University of California
Press, Berkeley , CA
National Park Service. 2016. Death Valley National Park Visitor's Guide, Winter/Spring 2016.
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| Left: Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), the most common larger shrub in Death Valley. Many of the plants were in bloom. Center and right: Two other unidentified species. |
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| Mimulus bigelovii. Plants bearing these flowers were typically very short in stature. One population of this species grows in a small canyon at the base of hills near Big Pine Rd. |
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| A Joshua Tree, Yucca brevifolia, in bloom. I noted two populations of Joshua trees in and around Death Valley National Park, both growing at elevations in excess of about 4000 ft. This tree was in a population along Wildrose Rd. |
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| Chylismia brevipes was one of the most common blooming species I saw in early March. The petals are often solid yellow, but sometimes have red spots as in this example from along Big Pine Road at the north end of the park. |
