Death Valley, California.. Known as the driest place in North America, Death Valley teems with life with once-a-decade wildflowers known as the “magnificent flower,” turning the normally brown desert landscape into carpets of gold.
Wildflowers in parts of Southern California and Nevada typically bloom in varying degrees each year. Some years, the gorgeous flowers are very vibrant It can be seen from space. But it’s rare for Death Valley National Park Hottest A place on the floor, bursting with colour.
“These landscapes that people sometimes think are desolate or devoid of life are now vibrant with this beautiful array of colors,” said park ranger Matthew Lamar.
This year’s bloom is the best the park has seen since 2016 thanks to consistent rainfall and warm temperatures in the past six months, Lamar said.
Death Valley has received nearly a year’s worth of rain since October and had its wettest November on record, according to the National Park Service, with 1.76 inches of rainfall, allowing long dormant seeds buried in the soil to burst through the surface.
Known as the “desert sunflower,” the desert sunflower covers areas of the valley, with purple phacelia, brown-eyed primroses, and desert pink five-spots scattered throughout.
Just north of the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, Las Vegas resident Jackie Gilbert appreciated the contrast between the field of golden flowers, the mountains behind it, and the blue sky above. The resilience of flowers is amazing, she said.
“It’s a good reminder that even in the face of all this adversity, they can still thrive,” said Gilbert, who visited the area specifically to see the magnificent flower.
Ecologists say this magnificent flower refutes the misconception about deserts that there is no life. Even in years when vibrant flowers aren’t blooming, a lot of life happens in Death Valley, said Lauralee Larios, a plant ecologist at the University of California, Riverside.
“Plants and animals have evolved really amazing strategies to be able to persist, especially in a system like Death Valley that is really characterized by extremes,” Larios said.
Desert plants have adapted to live decades without water, waiting for ideal conditions for their seeds to germinate and come back to life, said Tiffany Pereira, an ecologist and associate research scientist at the Desert Research Institute.
Time is of the essence to see these ephemeral or short-lived wildflowers.
The flower fields in the park’s lower elevations are expected to remain until mid- to late March, depending on the weather. Higher elevations will bloom with color from April to June, according to the National Park Service.
Visitors can check the poster outside the visitor center for the best spots to view the flowers. In early March, wildflower fields are in bloom just north of the Visitor Center, as well as south along Badwater Road. Ashford Mill, located an hour’s drive from the visitor center, is also bursting with color, according to Lamar.
Ecologists and park rangers warn visitors to stick to designated trails and avoid stepping on flowers. Picking the flowers is prohibited, and touching the purple phacelia can cause skin irritation. Any flower uprooted from the ground means fewer seeds planted for future generations to enjoy, Pereira said.
Visitors should also watch their steps for the sphinx moth caterpillars spreading across the desert floor in search of a brown-eyed primrose to eat before it buries itself in the soil and transforms into a butterfly.
“I think it’s a great time to come to Death Valley and have that unique experience because who knows when the next one is going to happen?” Lamar said.