Bloom Reports from the Anza-Borrego Desert: 2022-2023
Table of Contents
Latest Summary of Bloom Status
Bloom Reports from Individual Hikes This Season
Links to Other Webpages on Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Blooms
Background Information for Bloom Reports from the Anza-Borrego Desert
Older Bloom Reports from 2009 to present
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| Fig. 1. Top: a large field of sand verbena, Abronia villosa, in full bloom, in the sandy area along S22 between Fonts Point Wash and the Villager Peak Trailhead. It is extremely unusual to see any sand verbena in bloom at this time of year, let alone fields of it.
Bottom: a large field of chinchweed, Pectis papposa, still in full bloom, taken from Borrego Springs Road just north of Christmas Circle. Both photos taken on 4 November 2022 by Tom Chester. Click on the pix for larger versions. |
Latest Summary of Bloom Status
Summary as of 24 November 2022
Flowers, flowers, in many places! Hillsides of flowers in a number of places! Carpets of flowers in a number of places! In NOVEMBER!!!
These wonderful fall blooms are the result of the best summer and fall rain that we've had in years. It rained at least someplace in our desert area, primarily in the desert transition area of our mountains, every month in the last six months, at a time of year when there is often essentially no rain.
There were widespread monsoonal storms in the mountains, and sometimes in the adjoining desert areas, in June, July, and August 2022. Examples: half of Sweeney Pass Road was taken out by wash runoff from a monsoonal storm on 22 to 23 June 2022. In week after week in July and August, thunderstorms formed in the Garner Valley area of the San Jacinto Mountains and drifted toward the Borrego Desert, dumping rain on the Santa Rosa Mountains and the nearby desert floor.
The capper was when the remnants of Tropical Storm Kay dropped as much as four inches of rain in places on the desert slopes and mountain crests of San Diego County in mid-September. Ranchita got four inches from that storm, following four inches from a previous monsoonal storm earlier, and the desert area near Borrego Springs received 1.5 inches.
There was additional rainfall in October both from monsoonal storms and from a cutoff low.
As a result, almost the entire Desert Transition area, the area west and north of the desert floor, has at least some fall blooms, and some areas look gorgeous. Even areas of the desert floor, in Borrego Springs, and from Vallecito County Park to Carrizo Creek, have abundant blooms.
Many, but not all, of the areas with good blooms are documented at iNat, mostly by Fred Melgert and Carla Hoegen. Since 1 September 2022, as of 24 November 2022, there are 295 observations (147 from Fred and Carla) of Pectis papposa; 171 obs of Abronia villosa; 108 obs of Bahiopsis parishii; and 97 obs of Amaranthus fimbriatus. See map of the locations where those species have been observed since 24 October 2022, the last month before this report.
You can zoom into the map to see where the reports are. Once you zoom into a given area, click on the "Redo search in map" to find out how many observations there are in your zoomed area. Each observation gives the date and time of observation, and the latitude and longitude for each observation, which is plotted on a map so you can see where it was observed.
Many of those areas still have good blooms, but some do not. You can change the date of the starting time by clicking on "Filters" and changing the first date in the "Range".
Some general comments:
- There were beautiful hillsides of yellow from Bahiopsis parishii, beginning in late September 2022, peaking in mid-October 2022, and declining in late October 2022. Most of those hillsides only have remnant bloom in early November.
- There are still hillsides of yellow in some places, but now from late-blooming chinchweed, Pectis papposa, as seen along S22 west of Fonts Point Wash on 4 November 2022.
- Most of the annuals in bloom now or earlier in the fall are monsoonal species that germinate in response to the warm rains of summer, mostly Pectis papposa, Amaranthus fimbriatus, Boerhavia and Euphorbia species, Datura discolor, and Physalis crassifolia. Most of these species grow quickly, are in peak bloom a month after rainfall, and then die very quickly. Most of those species usually are almost completely gone at this time of year, but the spread-out good rains have kept many of them going even now.
Very few areas germinated our normal spring-blooming annuals, so those are mostly still absent now, and we need cool-season rains to germinate them.
- Two huge exceptions to the above are sand verbena, Abronia villosa (see Fig. 1), and desert sunflower, Geraea canescens. The extended good rains somehow stimulated many plants of those species to germinate in many places, and those plants should continue blooming through spring. The big patch of desert sunflowers along Henderson Canyon Road is beginning to bloom now. However, it is sensitive to frost, so if Borrego Springs gets much frost, it may kill or stunt most of those plants.
- Many of the perennials and shrubs in bloom now or earlier in the fall are also species that respond primarily to warm rains, such as devils claw, Proboscidea althaeifolia, and Senna armata. Those species had great blooms in September and early October, but are mostly finished now.
However, scattered plants of many species responded to the good rain with at least a few blooms.
- Chinchweed, Pectis papposa, began blooming in early September 2022, and were past peak bloom in many places in early November 2022. However, amazingly, some areas still have plants in full bloom in a number of areas, as shown in Fig. 1 above.
We've been too busy having fun observing flowers to go through all the many iNat observations to tag all of them that show blooming plants, but enough people have tagged observations so that, as of 8 November 2022, there are 279 observations of 85 species tagged as being in bloom since 1 October 2022. Click on "Filters" in the upper right to change the date range if you want to see only very recent observations.
Note that some of these species in bloom may be represented by only a single individual, or a small number of individuals, in some places. Also, how many and which species you see in bloom on your hike is largely determined by where you hike and how far you hike. Many species are restricted to a certain elevation range, or certain locations.
Click on the "Map" tab at the link and you can zoom into the map to see where the reports are. Once you zoom into a given area, click on the "Redo search in map" to find out how many flower observations there are in your zoomed area. Each observation gives the date and time of observation, and the latitude and longitude for each observation, which is plotted on a map so you can see where it was observed (note that rare species have obscured coordinates, which have a different symbol on the map and wildly inaccurate coordinates from the obscuration).
See also previous bloom reports, and all iNaturalist observations in the Borrego Desert since 1 September 2022 (click on "Filters" to change the dates; there were 4,741 observations of 414 species posted as of 8 November 2022.)
Bloom Reports from Individual Hikes This Season
The latest bloom reports are given first (i.e., the reports are in inverse order of time). As detailed immediately above, you can see a map of where the hikes were from any linked iNat post of the species in bloom.
20 November 2022. Tom Chester, Ted Caragozian, and Don Rideout saw 48 native species in bloom along their hiking route from the Vern Whitaker Horse Camp, to the Canyon just south of Second Crossing. 12 of those species had over 99 plants in bloom. And we never got close to Coyote Creek, which probably had another ten or so species in bloom.
Don and Tom posted 94 observations of 63 species from this trip, including two obs from Don's Borrego house earlier in the morning.
See Detailed Trip Report, which includes a list of all the species observed in bloom, along with the estimated number of plants of each species in bloom.
4 November 2022. Tom Chester, Jeff Fields, and Jim Roberts found at least 31 species in bloom from a car survey along S22 from Ranchita to the Villager Peak Trailhead, and a three mile hike from the Villager Peak Trailhead to Rattlesnake Canyon and back along the base of Lute Ridge. The highlights were fields of Pectis still in full bloom in the Borrego Springs town area, and the stunning field of Abronia villosa in full bloom in the sandy area along S22 between Fonts Point Wash and the Villager Peak Trailhead. Encelia actoni was in full bloom from the Ranchita Park Entrance to Culp Valley.
We posted a total of 99 observations of 55 species from our trip.
See Detailed Trip Report.
25 October 2022. Tom Chester, Walt Fidler, and Don Rideout report at least 38 species in bloom from a delightful six mile hike south of the Vallecito State Station County Park. There were carpets of Pectis papposa in bloom, and a number of delightful plants of devils claw, Proboscidea althaeifolia, in flower, fruit, and in a few cases, the dried split-open fruit that IS the devils claw.
Don and Tom posted a whopping 108 observations of 87 species from this trip.
See Detailed Trip Report.
21 October 2022. Tom Chester, Walt Fidler, and Jim Roberts had a fabulous hike from Fages Monument just above Lake Cuyamaca at 4700 feet, down the California Riding and Hiking Trail, which mostly is the Mason Valley Truck Trail, to the junction of S2 and Hornblende Canyon at 2400 feet elevation. There were few blooms at the start of our hike at high elevation, and many blooms near the bottom of our hike at lower elevation.
Jim and Tom posted 32 observations of 29 species from this trip.
See Detailed Trip Report.
17 October 2022. Tom Chester found at least 23 species in bloom on a four mile hike north of the Vallecito Stage Station County Park, and a number of additional species in bloom along S2 from the San Felipe Valley to the County Park. Highlights included beautiful hillsides of yellow from Bahiopsis parishii; fields and fields of Pectis papposa in good bloom, and green, happy plants essentially everywhere!
Tom posted 38 observations of 26 species from this trip, mostly from the car portion of the trip. Fred Melgert and Carla Hoegen had done a very similar hike on 3 October 2022, and posted 134 observations of 55 species from this area.
See Detailed Trip Report.
For many more bloom reports, see Anza-Borrego Wildflowers Bloom Report by Fred Melgert and Carla Hoegen.
Links to Other Webpages on Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Blooms
Anza-Borrego Wildflowers Bloom Report by Fred Melgert and Carla Hoegen, often with daily wildflower updates.
All iNaturalist observations in the Borrego Desert since 1 September 2022 (click on "Filters" to change the dates; there were 4,741 observations of 414 species posted as of 8 November 2022.)
Wildflower Updates from the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park official site, with wildflower information on it. When they start producing current wildflower reports, click on the link near the top with the word Update, which might be updated weekly.
DesertUSA Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Wildflower Reports
Anza-Borrego Foundation and Institute Wildflowers and their Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Wildflower Hotline: (760)767-4684. "Information on this recording is updated regularly."
Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline (Reports begin the first Friday in March)