Bloom Reports from the Anza-Borrego Desert: 2011-2012

narrow-leaved cryptantha, Cryptantha angustifolia

purple mat, Nama demissum

Pictures taken on 9 February 2012 in Bisnaga Alta Wash between the Vallecito and Carrizo Valleys. Both species are often ten times larger in better rainfall years, with many more flowers (note the even smaller cryptantha at the lower left of the picture that will probably have even fewer blooms). Without further rainfall, these are essentially all the flowers these plants are going to produce. Tom walked right by 20 plants of this purple mat that were in bloom without even noticing them.

The cryptantha was found immediately beside S2, which had germination from the extra water that ran off the road. The purple mat was found in only two small spots in a survey of several miles of the wash, in spots where water was probably more plentiful. In poor rainfall years like this, the best place to look for annuals is in such wetter spots.

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Rainfall This Season

Annual Germination, Growth and Blooms
     General Requirements for Annual Germination
     Bad Bloom Years Are All The Same; Good Bloom Years Are All Different
     Peak Bloom: What Does That Mean?
     Summary of Annual Germination, Growth and Blooms in 2011-2012
     Detailed Germination, Growth and Bloom Reports From Each Hike
     Pictures From Each Hike

How Long Will An Annual Bloom Last
     General Factors
     Predictions for This Year

Species in Bloom On Each Trip
     Number of Species and Plants in Bloom On Each Trip
     List of Species in Bloom On Each Trip, With Photographs
     Pictorial Gallery of Species in Bloom, organized by flower color

Links to Other Webpages on Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Blooms

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Introduction

This bloom report page reports the bloom status in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and nearby areas below 3000 feet elevation. Most observations are typically at about 1000 feet elevation. The 2009-2010 page covered the same area, whereas the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 pages were restricted to the Borrego Desert portion of the Park.

This page gives information about the 2011-2012 bloom for all species in this area, with emphasis on the annuals that are responsible for the widespread showy blooms that appear in some years on the desert floor. The date of the last update to the text of this page is given at the bottom of this page. However, the plots below showing the progress of the bloom are always kept up to date, even if this page hasn't been recently updated otherwise.

The plots below also show the progress of the bloom in 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011. For detailed progress of the bloom in those years, see 2010-2011 Blooms and the links therein.

In addition to specific information about current conditions, this page also gives some general information on what is needed to germinate those annuals, and what is needed to sustain the annual bloom.

The information here is by no means a definitive list to what is blooming at all locations in the Anza-Borrego Desert; it only records the species we've seen in bloom on trips that occur roughly every fourth day, occasionally augmented by observations from other people. Because the locations change, the numbers of species in bloom, and the number of plants in bloom, cannot usually be directly compared from trip to trip. However, the information here will give the reader an idea of what the bloom is doing in the Anza-Borrego Desert.

Note that there is often quite a difference in the annual bloom between the moister canyons west of Borrego Springs and the drier areas around the Badlands. Similarly, even within those canyons on the west, there can be large differences between the north-facing and south-facing slopes, and between canyons with permanent water, like Borrego Palm Canyon, and drier canyons. In the drier areas to the east, there can be large differences between the edges of washes and the middle of washes, and between shady canyons and open areas. Location matters!.

The locations for each hike are in the detailed reports below.

Rainfall This Season

Rainfall is the most important determinant of blooms. Summer monsoonal rainfall germinates summer annuals and stimulates some perennial plants to bloom in the late summer and fall. Fall / winter Pacific storm rainfall germinates the late winter / spring annuals, and causes the usual late winter / spring bloom in the desert. See the next section for more information.

Summer monsoonal rainfall is from thunderstorms, is extremely spotty in coverage, and does not occur every year in sufficient amounts to stimulate blooms.

Fall / winter rainfall is usually highest on the mountain slopes, especially on the west edge of the Borrego Desert, and falls off dramatically with lower elevation to the east. This occurs whenever our rainfall is mostly orographic, and the storm winds are from the west. However, when rainfall is from convection, or if the storm winds are from the east, the deserts can at times get more rainfall than the coast. (See Precipitation types.)

In addition to desert stations, we've also given the rainfall from Tom's house in Fallbrook, on the coastal side at 680 feet elevation, to show the large difference in rainfall between the wet side of the mountains and the dry side.

Table 1 gives the storm totals, in inches, as of the last day of each storm. The storm totals were taken from the Weather Service Rainfall Storm Summary, except for Fallbrook, which is the amount recorded at my house. Occasionally other stations are missing in that report; if so, totals are taken from the Rainfall Summary Map. Rainfall reports for Ocotillo Wells are reported here for the month to date.

If a station didn't appear in the summary, or we couldn't find it elsewhere on line, we usually assumed the rainfall total was zero. Although this assumption is probably usually correct, it is not necessarily always valid since missing data plague all rain reports. In a few cases, when it was clear that some rainfall must have been received at those missing stations, we've guesstimated the rainfall.

Note that the total rainfall at the bottom of the table is since 13 September, since rain that falls earlier doesn't germinate the desert annuals (see below). This rainfall total may be different from the rainfall reported by the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Visitor Center using the normal California rainfall year that begins on 1 July. Also, the total rainfall sometimes contains rainfall in Fallbrook not reported in the table if there was no major rainfall in the desert.

Table 1. Major Rainfall Events Since 13 September 2011

End Date	Fallbrook	Ranchita	San Felipe	Agua Caliente	Borrego Springs	Ocotillo Wells
9/13/2011	0.00				0.24	0.28
10/5/2011	0.83				0.00	0.00
11/4/2011	0.51	0.51	0.24	0.11	0.03	0.03
11/6/2011	0.39	0.09		0.04	0.00	0.00
11/12/2011	0.60	1.29	0.95	0.41	0.39	0.18
11/20/2011	0.78	0.31	0.08	0.05	0.00	0.05
12/12/2011	0.99	0.38	0.44	0.56	0.25	0.15
1/16/2012	0.28	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
1/21/2012	0.47	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
1/23/2012	0.48	0.40	0.08	?	0.08	?
Total All Rain to 1/24/12	5.33	2.98	1.79	1.17	0.99	0.69

As of 11/16/11, the rainfall total for the 2011-2012 year reported at the Visitor Center, measured at the nearby Colorado District Headquarters, was 1.31 inches (data from Mary Jo Churchwell), compared to the Borrego Springs NWS total of 0.66 inches. The extra amount at the Visitor Center either included some monsoonal rainfall before 9/13/11, or represented heavier rainfall at that location on 9/13/11 and/or 11/12/11.

Annual Germination, Growth and Blooms

General Requirements for Annual Germination

There are two main rain windows for annual germination in the Borrego Desert: monsoonal / summer rainfall, received from thunderstorms in July, August and September, and fall / winter rainfall received from October through January.

Monsoonal rainfall germinates a handful of summer annuals that bloom in September and October. Occasionally, fall / winter rainfall occurring in October will germinate some of these summer annuals.

Our most common summer annuals are listed in Table 2.

Table 2. Summer Annuals Germinated by Monsoonal Rainfall

Scientific name	Common Name	Family
Amaranthus fimbriatus	fringed amaranth	Amaranthaceae
Aristida adscensionis	six-weeks three-awn	Poaceae
Boerhavia coulteri	Coulter's spiderling	Nyctaginaceae
Boerhavia intermedia	fivewing spiderling	Nyctaginaceae
Boerhavia wrightii	Wright's spiderling	Nyctaginaceae
Bouteloua aristidoides var. aristidoides	needle grama	Poaceae
Bouteloua barbata var. barbata	six-weeks grama	Poaceae
Chamaesyce micromera	Sonoran spurge	Euphorbiaceae
Chamaesyce setiloba	Yuma spurge	Euphorbiaceae
Datura discolor	desert thornapple	Solanaceae
Ditaxis neomexicana	New Mexico ditaxis	Euphorbiaceae
Kallstroemia californica	California caltrop	Zygophyllaceae
Mollugo cerviana	carpet-weed	Molluginaceae
Stillingia spinulosa	annual stillingia	Euphorbiaceae

Most of these summer annuals won't be seen in a given year at any time unless there has been sufficient summer rainfall (Aristida adscensionis is one of the few summer annuals that is also a spring annual). Good monsoonal rainfall occurs in fewer than half of all years. Monsoonal rainfall is always spotty, with thunderstorms soaking an area of perhaps one square mile, and not touching surrounding areas.

The rest of this section discusses only the "normal" annuals seen by most visitors to the Borrego Desert in the late winter and early spring.

The timing of fall / winter rainfall is extremely important for the annual bloom. Rainfall received in the summer and early fall will not germinate the annuals that bloom in February and March. Rainfall received after January will either not germinate those annuals, or will germinate them too late for them to produce a robust bloom in most years. Thus rain must fall in October, November, December and/or January in order to germinate the annuals that produce the showy mass displays. The potential showiness of the bloom declines when the germinating rainfall gets later in January, since the annuals don't have enough time to grow very large before the increasing heat of March ends their bloom.

The amount in a single storm is also important. Native annuals require at least about an inch of rainfall, received over no longer than a period of something like several days, in order to germinate. Our native annuals have learned the hard way that less rainfall doesn't guarantee enough moisture in the soil for them to produce seeds. Many annuals won't even germinate with two inches of rainfall in the Badlands and similar soils.

Unfortunately, non-native annuals can germinate on less rainfall, and can sometimes get a head start over our native annuals if we get a first rainfall much less than an inch.

See Predicting Desert Wildflower Blooms - The science behind the spectacle from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for information relating to Arizona desert blooms. Note, however, that there is a big difference between the Sonoran Desert germination in Tucson and in Borrego Springs.

Germinating rainfall typically occurs in Tucson in October and November, whereas it typically occurs in Borrego Springs in December and January. See Monthly average rainfall in Tucson and Borrego Springs from September to February (in the plot, month 13 is January and month 14 is February). Tucson receives an average of 1.5 inches of rain in October and November, whereas Borrego Springs receives an average of only 0.6 inches then, not enough to germinate annuals then in most years. Borrego Springs receives an average of 2.0 inches of rain in December and January, which is usually enough to germinate annuals there during that period. (As detailed above, since rainfall declines markedly to the east of Borrego Springs, the probability of germination in those areas in a given year declines as well.)

Bad Bloom Years Are All The Same; Good Bloom Years Are All Different

Janice Emily Bowers, with her vast experience in desert blooms, said it best in her book Flowers and Shrubs of the Mojave Desert, 1998, p. 4:

... maybe one in five [springs] will bring a good wildflower display. All bad springs are more or less alike in that wildflowers are scarce or not to be seen, but all good years are different in that no two have the same abundance of flowers or the same combinations of species. This is because different kinds of annual wildflowers have different requirements for germination and growth.

This is just as true for the Borrego and Sonoran Deserts.

Peak Bloom: What Does That Mean?

The term Peak Bloom means different things to different people:

• To the casual visitor to the Borrego Desert, it means the time period when there are carpets of showy flowers on the desert floor that will immediately be obvious in a large-scale photograph. As a result, this is also what the Park Staff means by Peak Bloom as well, and what is reported by them in the postcard notifications to those who sign up for that.

  Only a few species produce those showy carpets of flowers, and the timing of their bloom does not necessarily correspond to each other, let alone the ~200 other species that bloom in February and March.

  Note that other species can produce fields of flowers, but not in the sense of carpets of flowers. For example, brittlebush, Encelia farinosa, can produce very showy displays on hillsides long after the carpets of annuals are gone.

• To a wildflower enthusiast, or a botanist, it might mean the time period when they can see the maximum number of species in bloom on a given one or two day trip. This in general occurs later than the time when showy carpets of flowers are present.

  In fact, Tom has been in the desert at such a time of peak bloom, with perhaps 50 species in full bloom within a mile of his location, and had visitors ask him where the flowers are. Clearly, they were looking for carpets of flowers, and weren't interested in walking around to find all the species in bloom at that location.

Most of the time, we use the latter definition of Peak Bloom, but we also try to mention when the carpets of flowers are present.

If you are looking for a particular species in bloom, the time of Peak Bloom doesn't matter to you; you want to know only when that species is in bloom. Plant species bloom at different times; it is not possible to see every species in bloom even over the time period of a month.

For example, if you want to see the beautiful blooms of beavertail cactus, Opuntia basilaris, you'll need to come just after the showy annual carpets are finished. If you want to see the beautiful flowers of desert-willow, Chilopsis linearis ssp. arcuata, then you'll need to come here in summer, when few species are blooming except for it.

See observed dates of peak bloom in 2008-2009 and in 2009-2010 for various locations.

These annual species produce the showy carpets of flowers:

• hairy sand verbena, Abronia villosa
• brown-eyed primrose, Camissonia claviformis
• spectacle-pod, Dithyrea californica
• hairy desert-sunflower, aka desert gold, Geraea canescens
• Arizona lupine, Lupinus arizonicus
• desert dandelion, Malacothrix glabrata
• dune primrose, Oenothera deltoides

Other annuals can produce carpets of flowers, but are either more limited in their distribution, such as Bigelow's monkeyflower, Mimulus bigelovii, or purple mat, Nama demissum; or don't produce such showy displays, such as Fremont pincushion, Chaenactis fremontii (since fields of white don't show up well against the whitish background of the desert soil).

Summary of Annual Germination, Growth and Blooms in 2011-2012

In the southern part of ABDSP, in Mason Valley and southward, at elevations of 1000 to 2000 feet, we are now entering peak bloom, such as it is in this poor rainfall year.

In all of our trips so far this year, we've now seen 67 annual species, and 157 species total, in bloom. This represents about 3/4 of all the species that bloom in a typical year, and probably a higher percentage of the species that will bloom this year.

This year there are no carpets of flowers, and few, if any, showy displays. Instead, in the areas where moisture was greatest, primarily along roadsides, in canyon bottoms and in washes, we have many tiny annuals each producing just a few flowers, which will quickly go to seed without further rain.

Although tourists may complain about the lack of blooms, botanists will be delighted that there are still so many species to be found in bloom, at least in some favored locations. For example, we observed over 1,871 plants of 67 species in bloom on 2/9/12 in Bisnaga Alta Wash and nearby.

In the northern part of ABDSP, such as in the town of Borrego Springs and eastward, few annuals even germinated this year, so the bloom there is almost non-existent. Not even botanists will be happy there.

This north-south variation in the low desert was the result of rainfall that occurred only on 12 November and 12 December 2011 that was greatest in the southern part of ABDSP. The rainfall was probably even higher in Baja California, since it came from an unusual series of cut-off lows that each went across Baja California.

The following pictures show just how bad it was on 18 January 2012 at the beginning of the Hellhole Canyon Trail; at the junction of the Hellhole Canyon Trail and the California Riding and Hiking Trail; at about a half mile up the California Riding and Hiking Trail; and in Little Surprise Canyon. In those pix, germination was only seen in Little Surprise Canyon. There has been no rainfall in any of these areas since those pictures were taken, so it is unlikely anything has changed in those locations.

There are desert areas outside of ABDSP that had good blooms in January 2012, from heavy rainfall in September and October 2011, such as lowermost Box Canyon immediately east of Mecca, and the southern boundary of Joshua Tree National Park on Cottonwood Springs Road. RT Hawke discovered both of these areas, fairly limited in size, where much water ponded above dikes. These areas may no longer be in such good bloom.

Detailed Germination, Growth and Bloom Reports From Each Hike

These reports are just summaries of these conditions from each hike.

See also Detailed Germination, Growth and Bloom Reports From Each Hike in 2010-2011 and 2009-2010.

11/7/11: S22, Coyote Creek Road. Our main goal for this trip was to look for Kallstroemia californica, a summer annual. We didn't actually expect to find it, since the monsoonal rain this year was minimal. But we did find a few summer annuals here and there, such as Chamaesyce micromera and Datura discolor. We found one small patch of summer annuals on the hill above Second Crossing.

On our entire trip, the most abundant species in bloom are Eriogonum elongatum, long-stemmed buckwheat along S22 in Culp Valley; Dicoria canescens, desert dicoria, in the "Zero" Crossing of Coyote Creek in the drainage just south of the pavement's end on Di Giorgio Road; Baccharis salicifolia, mule fat, at Second Crossing; and numerous Fouquieria splendens, ocotillo, blooms along S22 and near Desert Gardens. Altogether, we observed a pretty-remarkable 46 species in bloom, with over 689 plants total in bloom. (No species counts more than 99 plants to that total.) The number of species in bloom was high due to making many stops along Coyote Creek in different habitats.

11/11/11: S22, Tubb Canyon. Tubb Canyon was very dry; even Tubb Spring looked quite dry. Most of the species we recorded as being in bloom on this trip were found along S22. We found a "more typical for this time of year" total of over 226 plants of 24 species in bloom.

11/15/11 S2, Grapevine Canyon, Bitter Creek Canyon, Borrego Springs. The blooming stars of the show in Bitter Creek Canyon were Gutierrezia californica, Ericameria brachylepis, Isocoma acradenia var. eremophila, and Eriogonum wrightii var. nodosum, California matchweed, boundary goldenbush, solitary-leaved alkali goldenbush, and Wright's buckwheat, with over 100 plants of each species in bloom except for about 50 plants of Wright's buckwheat. Although the soil was moist, we found only a few germinated annuals, two non-natives: Erodium cicutarium, redstem filaree, and Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens, red brome, and one native: Pholistoma membranaceum, white fiesta flower.

Overall on our trip, including the driving portion along S2 in San Felipe Valley below 3000 feet elevation, we found over 553 plants of 25 species in bloom.

11/22/11: S2, SR78, Pinyon Wash, Pinyon Canyon, Harper Flat. Although the soil in this area was moist, we found very little germination so far, just a few scattered Brassica tournefortii, Sahara mustard, along with one of its typical ~one inch diameter clumps containing 50 crowded plants.

Our drive along Pinyon Wash was filled with Chrysothamnus paniculatus, punctate rabbitbrush, in glorious full bloom. We had no idea there were so many plants of this species here! We'd been seeing a handful of plants along SR78, but Pinyon Wash contains the mother lode for this plant in this area. There were a number of chuparosa and ocotillo in bloom in the wash as well, with many ocotillo fully leafed out. Pinyon Canyon had a number of Eriogonum wrightii var. nodosum, Wright's buckwheat, in full bloom.

Overall on our trip, including the driving portion along S2 in San Felipe Valley below 3000 feet elevation, we found over 341 plants of 15 species in bloom.

11/30/11: Wilson Trail. This trip was at 4,000 feet elevation, well above the cutoff of 3,000 feet elevation for this page, so is not included in the plots and tables below. The only germination was abundant and widespread non-native Erodium cicutarium, redstem filaree, which is able to germinate at cool temperatures and thus gets a head start on the native annuals. This is probably a major reason behind its dominance in many places in Culp Valley.

12/4/11: S2, SR78, Fish Creek, Wind Caves Trail. Although this area had received rainfall, we saw no annual germination. Outside of Fish Creek itself, the plants looked pretty pathetic overall, typical of the end of the drought season. But some plants in the wash, with the higher groundwater table, looked pretty good. The Isocoma acradenia was in full bloom, and we even saw one plant each of Astragalus crotalariae, Salton milk-vetch, and Xylorhiza orcuttii, Orcutt's woody-aster, in bloom.

On our entire trip, including the drive along S2 and SR78, we saw over 241 plants of 21 species in bloom.

See Wayne Armstrong's Pictures from this trip.

12/10/11: S22, Borrego Palm Canyon. This was a delightful trip, since there were a number of baby annuals of five native species, unfortunately accompanied by larger numbers of three non-native annuals. The most abundant annuals were the non-native Brassica tournefortii, Saharan mustard and Bromus madritensis, red brome, and the native Pholistoma membranaceum, white fiesta flower, with hundreds of seedlings of each species. We saw lesser numbers of Phacelia distans, common phacelia, and the non-native Erodium cicutarium, redstem filaree.

On our entire trip, including the drive along S22, we saw over 373 plants of 16 species in bloom.

See Wayne Armstrong's Pictures from this trip.

12/15/11: S22, Fonts Point Wash, Villager Peak Trail, lower Rattlesnake Canyon. No germination was noted along the Villager Peak Trail, and only a handful of individual seedlings were noted in Rattlesnake Canyon, from several native species and from Brassica tournefortii.

On our entire trip, including the drive along S22 and a stop in Fonts Point Wash, we observed over 170 plants of 17 species in bloom.

See Wayne Armstrong's Pictures from this trip.

12/19/11: S22, Villager Peak Trail, upper Rattlesnake Canyon. Germination in upper Rattlesnake Canyon was almost as poor as in lower Rattlesnake Canyon, with only a few spots having more than just a few seedlings.

On our entire trip, including the drive along S22, we observed over 282 plants of 18 species in bloom.

12/23/11: S22, Palo Verde Canyon. Germination was essentially non-existent in Palo Verde Canyon.

On our entire trip, including the drive along S22, we observed over 222 plants of just 10 species in bloom.

12/28/11: S22, Glorietta Canyon. We observed good numbers of annuals of four native species in Glorietta Canyon on 12/28/11, and smaller numbers of another ten native species. However, good germination was confined to patchy fairly small areas, mostly in the washes and canyon floors, with little germination on hillsides.

On our entire trip, including the drive along S22, we observed over 236 plants of just 8 species in bloom.

1/6/12: S2, PCT North of SR78 at Scissors Crossing. Some native germination was observed, but 99% of all the seedlings were from two non-native species, Erodium cicutarium, redstem filaree; and Bromus madritensis rubens, red brome. Redstem filaree was everywhere, whereas red brome was mostly on north-facing slopes.

On our entire trip, including the drive along S2, we observed over 142 plants of 24 species in bloom.

1/8/12: ABF Rebman Field Trip: S3, SR78, S2, Pinyon Mountain Road. No intensive field survey was conducted. The list of plants in bloom were just the ones noted during the trip. Just 18 plants of 8 species were seen in bloom.

1/10/12: S2, PCT North of SR78 at Scissors Crossing. Same conditions as on 1/6/12 in the area surveyed both days, plus we observed significant native annual germination in the sandy area north of the large parking area on S2 a bit north of Scissors Crossing, including Camissonia pallida, Loeseliastrum schottii and Camissonia californica.

On our entire trip, including the drive along S2, we observed over 209 plants of 26 species in bloom.

1/18/12: S22, California Riding and Hiking Trail from Hellhole Canyon toward Culp Valley, Little Surprise Canyon. Nearly all the species we observed in bloom were from two stops along S22 on Montezuma Grade. Germination was shockingly absent along nearly the entire length of the California Riding and Hiking Trail, with just a handful of Cryptantha and Chaenactis carphoclinia seedlings in just a few areas, accompanied by just three small areas where Pholistoma membranaceum, white fiesta flower, has germinated, and one sandy area along a drainage that had a hundred plants of Pectocarya recurvata, curvenut combseed, each about one inch high with a single very tiny flower. There was very sparse germination in Little Surprise Canyon, with some of the tiny Senecio mohavensis plants producing just a few tiny buds.

If you blinked while hiking or driving past any of those areas, none of those plants would have been seen.

The following pictures show just how bad it was at the beginning of the Hellhole Canyon Trail; at the junction of the Hellhole Canyon Trail and the California Riding and Hiking Trail; at about a half mile up the California Riding and Hiking Trail; and in Little Surprise Canyon. In those pix, germination was only seen in Little Surprise Canyon.

On our entire trip, including the drive along S2, we observed over 298 plants of 38 species in bloom.

1/22/12: S2, Fossil Canyon. We made three stops along S2 to check on the germination:

• Blair Valley. There was good germination by the parking area by the bathroom next to S2, but it is essentially all non-native Erodium cicutarium, accompanied by a smaller number of native Pectocarya, both of which were beginning to bloom.

• Mason Valley. There was good germination of a number of native annuals, as well as the non-native Erodium and Brassica tournefortii, both of which were blooming. Most of the Brassica tournefortii were blooming as very small pathetic plants with just a few flowers, which is all they will have total unless they get more rain, and maybe even if they do.

• Carrizo Badlands overlook. There was no germination except under some shrubs, and in a little drainage. Although the germination was pretty sparse, it was of mostly native plants: Phacelia distans, Erodium texanum, and even five spot, Eremalche rotundifolia.

• Fossil canyon had excellent germination, entirely of native annuals! If we get more rain, this canyon will look good. For example, this hillside slope is covered with healthy young plants of Chaenactis carphoclinia, pebble pincushion.

The total number of blooms on our entire trip was low, only 140 plants of just 24 species in bloom.

1/30/12: S2, SR79, Lowermost Oriflamme Canyon. We observed some germination in stops along Oriflamme Road, as well as some germination in the 0.40 miles of Oriflamme Creek that we surveyed above the Campground site. However, the germination was significantly less than we expected from what we had seen in Mason Valley on a stop along S2 on 1/22/12.

Although we saw several shrub species in full bloom, Ribes indecorum, white-flowering currant; and Ziziphus parryi, lotebush, most shrubs had no buds on them. They looked like they were barely surviving, and not thriving like they should be doing at this time of year.

Although we saw 42 species in bloom in total, there were only 471 plants in bloom by our count, a very low total for that number of species in bloom. For example, we saw a single pathetically-small plant of chia, Salvia columbariae, in bloom, without any other baby plants of that species present. Seedlings of many other annual species appeared to be missing totally, or were few in number.

See Wayne Armstrong's photos from this trip.

2/3/12: S2, SR79, Rainbow Canyon. Rainbow Canyon presented several different faces to us. Parts of it had decent germination, with plants either just about to flower, or plants in flower. Most of these annuals were very small, as expected in a year with poor rainfall. Some of these areas had chuparosa in full bloom, and looked pretty good. But other areas had only annual species finishing bloom and beginning to dry up, and it looked like the bloom was over!

Overall on this trip, we observed over 742 plants of 56 species in bloom. That is a low number of plants for that many species in bloom. For example, last year, when we had 58 species in bloom on 1/23/11, we had 1,656 plants in bloom, 2.3 times as many. And those were showier plants on average, with more blooms per plant.

That comparison of the bloom numbers also obscures the fact that this year there are large areas of the Borrego Desert that have essentially no blooms, with no annuals present at all. Last year, the numbers of plants in bloom often came from plants in the lower desert, where the bloom totals this year approach zero.

We're lucky we can go to the desert transition area and find blooms this year!

See Wayne Armstrong's photos from this trip.

2/9/12: S2, SR79, Bisnaga Alta Wash. Full bloom has begun here, but it isn't the full bloom that most people expect in the desert. We observed over 1,871 plants of 67 species in bloom on 2/9/12 in Bisnaga Alta Wash and nearby, numbers that typically are found at the beginning of full bloom (see the plots). Of those 67 species, 20 were annuals that we hadn't seen in bloom previously this year. Coincidentally, we have now observed 67 species of annuals in bloom so far this year, over half the number we usually see in bloom in each entire year.

However, some people might be hard-pressed to find any plants in bloom, since the vast majority of these annuals are tiny plants only an inch or two tall, with small flowers, and are found only in places that received more water. Two examples are:

• Plants of narrow-leaved cryptantha, Cryptantha angustifolia, were mostly present only along the sides of S2, where they received more water from the road drainoff. Despite that additional water, the lack of rain since December resulted in the plants being only an inch tall, ten times smaller than they usually are, with many fewer flowers.

• Plants of purple mat, Nama demissum, were found in only two small spots in a survey of several miles of the wash, in spots where water was more plentiful. Tom even passed by 30 plants in bloom in one of these spots without noticing them!

The first barrel cactus, Ferocactus cylindraceus, and desert pincushion, Chaenactis stevioides, plants were seen in bloom on this trip. Both of these species are among the last bloomers in the usual bloom sequence. However, the hillsides of pebble pincushion, Chaenactis carphoclinia, had yet to grow their bloom stalks, so they were reporting that the season wasn't as far along as the other two species were reporting.

One of our main goals for this trip was to find the plants of Lotus haydonii that were vouchered here. Although we were quite disappointed not to find any plants of that species, or even the similar L. scoparius, we were stunned to find our first specimen of Horsfordia alata essentially at the exact voucher location! This is only the second record in San Diego County of this species.

See Wayne Armstrong's photos from this trip.

Pictures From Each Hike

See Photo Gallery of Desert Species Observed in Bloom for photographs organized by flower color. The date and location of each picture are given in that table.

Most of the rest of Tom's pictures were taken for scientific purposes, and not specifically to show anything about the bloom. However, they may be of interest to people showing some aspects of what the bloom was like on a given date. Tom's pictures are not even on standard webpages; Table 3 gives links to a directory and you have to click on the link for each picture to see it. Scientific names are used almost exclusively for the picture names.

Table 3. Links to Directories With Pictures From Each Trip

2011		2012
November 07 November 11 November 15 November 22 November 30	December 4 December 15 December 19 December 23	January 18 January 22 January 30	February 3 February 9

See also the pictures from Wayne Armstrong for the trips on 12/4/11, 12/10/11, 12/15/11, 1/30/12, 2/3/12, and 2/9/12.

See also Tom's Pictures From Each Hike in 2010-2011 and 2009-2010 (caution: some pictures may have been deleted due to web space limitations).

How Long Will An Annual Bloom Last

General Factors

Past Rainfall, Future Rainfall, and Heat are the main factors determining how long an annual bloom will last on the desert floor at about 1000 feet elevation:

• Past rainfall affects how big the plant is, and how many resources it has to keep blooming, especially the root system of the plant and how much moisture is available in the ground. Given enough resources, annuals can withstand conditions that would otherwise abruptly end the bloom.

• Future rainfall can allow a bloom to keep going even if resources are meager. Even annuals near death can produce significant new growth if they receive rainfall.

• Heat is the main factor that terminates a bloom. Tom has seen a very robust February bloom abruptly end in just two weeks in March when 90° heat begins and is sustained for a few weeks. On the other hand, the bloom can go into April in years with cooler March temperatures.

Predictions for This Year

Without further rainfall in the desert, the annual bloom is going to end relatively quickly at elevations of 1000-1500 feet, and might be gone by March. Annuals at higher elevations will probably be in bloom in March, and gone by April.

However, we are hoping for another Miracle March, which produces another round of germination, so we can study numerically what happens under those conditions.

Species in Bloom On Each Trip

Number of Species and Plants in Bloom On Each Trip

Five plots are given below; each plot has this year's bloom data as well as last year's bloom data for comparison:

• The first two plots, Figures 1-2, show what was observed on each trip, the total number of species in bloom and the total number of plants in bloom. The total number of plants in bloom for each individual species is capped at a maximum of 99 plants.

  In order to see the variation from year to year better, the curves are smoothed by averaging each point (except for the first and last point for each year) with its neighbors in time, in order to reduce the large scatter from trip to trip that comes from changing venues. The actual (unsmoothed) data for each trip is given in Table 4.

• The next two plots, Figures 3-4, give the cumulative total numbers from all trips so far this season, of all species seen in bloom and of all annual species that germinated this year and have begun blooming. Thus this does not count any annual species that survived from last year and is now blooming. These cumulative total numbers include the number of species on a given trip as well as those from all trips previous to that trip.

  The last plot, Figure 5, gives the percent of the species that have bloomed so far that are annuals.

The plots and the table here must be interpreted cautiously, for at least four reasons:

1. Long hikes will find more plants in bloom than short hikes. For example, the hikes of 12/29/08, 1/2/09 and 1/9/09 were all in Henderson Canyon, but were 4, 7 and 8 miles long, respectively. The increase in the number of plants was due almost entirely to the length covered.

2. Some areas have a higher species diversity than others, and so will have more species blooming at a given time. For example, on 2/20/09, Tom botanized the Borrego Badlands, which had significantly fewer species than the Coyote Creek area he had botanized for the previous two trips. As a result, the total number of species observed in bloom skidded from 61 to 35, even though the bloom overall in the Borrego Desert was still getting better. Note that the cumulative number of species, and annuals, seen to be in bloom from all trips that year continued to increase, since the Badlands had some species not found elsewhere.

3. There is variation from year to year in the choice of hiking locations, often influenced by weather variations. For example:

   In 2009-2010, Tom began by botanizing the Coyote Creek Area, which had abundant water along the Creek. As a result, Tom found significantly more species in bloom than he did in 2008-2009, when he began by botanizing the very dry Clark Lake Area.

   On 12/1/09, Tom visited an area that had received a summer thunderstorm on 5 September 2009, and as a result had many more species in bloom than anyplace else he visited in December 2008 or December 2009.

   The curves for November and December for 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 could thus easily have been switched between years if Tom had also switched areas botanized in each year. (I.e., if Tom had botanized wet / monsoon storm areas in 2008-2009 and dry areas in 2009-2010.)

4. Although the numbers of species and plants in bloom might be the same in different years, the bloom might actually be quite different overall in those years. For example, although the curves for 2011-2012 hit roughly the same values as the curve for 2010-2011 in mid-February, wide areas of the desert had essentially no blooms at all in 2011-2012. The curves look similar simply because we chose to botanize in the areas where there were blooms.

That said, in general the curves so far all look roughly the same, with low numbers of plants and species in bloom in the fall and early winter, with the numbers increasing when the annuals begin blooming in January, February or March. When full bloom begins depends on when the first germinating rainfall occurs, and the subsequent heat and rainfall conditions. If there has been adequate rain, the perennials will begin blooming at about the same time.

The curves can sometimes follow each other closely. For example, the number of species in bloom on a trip to Clark Valley on 12/19/09 produced almost exactly the same number of species in bloom as the 12/19/08 trip a year earlier.

Very different curves would result from those infrequent years with heavy monsoonal rains in September, which can produce a large number of species in bloom as early as October.

Figure 1. Number of Species in Bloom on Each Trip

Figure 2. Number of Plants in Bloom on Each Trip

Figure 3. Cumulative Number of Species Seen in Bloom From All Trips

Figure 4. Cumulative Number of Annual Species Seen in Bloom From All Trips

Figure 5. Percent of All Species Seen in Bloom From All Trips That Are Annuals

Table 4 gives the numbers used for the above plots, for the last two months. The individual observations used to obtain these numbers are in the List of Species in Bloom On Each Trip.

Table 4. Number of Species and Total Number of Plants in Bloom on Each Trip

Number of	11/07	11/11	11/15	11/22	12/4	12/10	12/15	12/19	12/23	12/28	1/6	1/8	1/10	1/18	1/22	1/30	2/3	2/9
Species	47	24	25	15	22	16	17	18	10	8	24	8	26	38	24	42	56	67
Plants	692	226	553	341	242	422	170	282	222	236	142	18	209	298	140	471	742	1871

List of Species in Bloom On Each Trip, With Photographs

Table 5 gives the number of plants observed to be in bloom for each species on each hike, with a maximum value of 99 plants for each species. This maximum value prevents one species from dominating the total plants in bloom, and makes it much easier to keep track of the bloom.

Because the hike locations vary, some species will not be present on every hike, so the lack of an entry for a given hike says nothing about whether that species is blooming elsewhere.

The Checklist is sorted first by category, with dicots before monocots, and then by family and scientific name. The Family and Scientific Name are from the Jepson Manual. An asterisk before the Common Name indicates a non-native taxon.

See Plant Family Abbreviations to obtain the full family name from the abbreviations used in the table below.

The Checklist has thumbnail photographs for most of the species, all of which were taken in the Borrego Desert. Clicking on the thumbnail photograph gives a larger version equal in size to the ones at the top of this page. The thumbnail photographs are unevenly sized below, since they originally were sized as 50 pixels wide, but are gradually being converted to larger versions 80 pixels wide.

All the larger versions are also presented in Pictorial Gallery of Species in Bloom, organized by flower color, and with the location and date of each picture (the Gallery hasn't been updated for a while, so a number of these species are now missing there).

All pictures were taken by Tom, with a Sony Point and Shoot T9 camera except the following:

• Mike Crouse contributed the pictures for Camissonia pallida, Crassula connata, Eschscholzia parishii, Fouquieria splendens, Mammillaria dioica, Mirabilis tenuiloba, Penstemon clevelandii var. connatus, Prunus fremontii, and Ribes indecorum, using either a Cannon Point and Shoot SD1100IS or SD1200IS.

• Bill Sullivan contributed the pictures for Oenothera elata ssp. hirsutissima and Mimulus cardinalis.

This table gives the number of plants in bloom only in the last two months, in order to remove species that are probably no longer blooming.

Some species that have bloomed in the Borrego Desert are not listed here, since we never observed them in bloom. Such species are found only in a few locations, and we either never visited those locations or they bloomed in between our visits to their location.

Of course, species that bloom later in the year, and species that do not have flowers (ferns, etc.) are not present in this list, so it is not the equivalent of a plant checklist for the Borrego Desert.

An asterisk before the common name indicates a non-native species.

Table 5. List of Species in Bloom On Each Trip, with Number of Plants Observed in Bloom

#	FAM	Scientific Name	Pix	(*)Common Name	Number of Plants in Bloom
					11/07	11/11	11/15	11/22	12/4	12/10	12/15	12/19	12/23	12/28	1/6	1/8	1/10	1/18	1/22	1/30	2/3	2/9
1	ACA	Justicia californica		chuparosa	2	20	20	50	5	99	5	2		20				15	2		50	99
2	AMA	Amaranthus fimbriatus		fringed amaranth	3
3	ASC	Asclepias albicans		white-stemmed milkweed					1													1
4	ASC	Asclepias subulata		rush milkweed	1						3	2
5	ASC	Matelea parvifolia		spearleaf											1		1
6	ASC	Sarcostemma cynanchoides ssp. hartwegii		climbing milkweed																1
7	AST	Adenophyllum porophylloides		San Felipe dogweed	3	1						4			2		1	10			6
8	AST	Ambrosia acanthicarpa		bur-ragweed	2
9	AST	Ambrosia dumosa		burroweed	1																	5
10	AST	Baccharis salicifolia		mule fat	25
11	AST	Bebbia juncea var. aspera		sweetbush	1	15	5	2	2	3				2	4		2	5	10	11	6	1
12	AST	Brickellia desertorum		desert brickellia		3
13	AST	Brickellia frutescens		shrubby brickellia				1
14	AST	Chaenactis stevioides		desert pincushion																		3
15	AST	Chrysothamnus paniculatus		punctate rabbitbrush	1		5	99	25						6
16	AST	Conyza canadensis		horseweed	99
17	AST	Dicoria canescens		desert dicoria	99						1
18	AST	Encelia actoni		Acton encelia					1				2
19	AST	Encelia farinosa		brittlebush						3	1	1	1				1	20	2	4	9	18
20	AST	Encelia frutescens		button encelia							1
21	AST	Ericameria brachylepis		boundary goldenbush	10		99					5			3		1	8		1
22	AST	Eriophyllum wallacei		Wallace's woolly daisy																		99
23	AST	Filago depressa		dwarf filago																	3	4
24	AST	Gnaphalium luteo-album		*common cudweed	5
25	AST	Gutierrezia californica		California matchweed	2		99	30							11		15	3		1	2
26	AST	Gutierrezia sarothrae		matchweed		2
27	AST	Heterotheca grandiflora		telegraph weed			50	30	2							2
28	AST	Hymenoclea salsola var. salsola		cheesebush																		1
29	AST	Isocoma acradenia var. acradenia		alkali goldenbush			1		1
30	AST	Isocoma acradenia var. eremophila		solitary-leaved alkali goldenbush			99		40
31	AST	Malacothrix glabrata		desert dandelion																		4
32	AST	Monoptilon bellioides		desert star																		1
33	AST	Palafoxia arida var. arida		desert needle	20				2
34	AST	Pectis papposa var. papposa		chinch-weed	3
35	AST	Perityle emoryi		Emory's rock-daisy																	1	3
36	AST	Porophyllum gracile		odora																		2
37	AST	Senecio flaccidus var. monoensis		Mono ragwort	1
38	AST	Senecio mohavensis		Mojave ragwort																		10
39	AST	Stephanomeria exigua ssp. exigua		slender wreathplant			1								2		2			1	1
40	AST	Stephanomeria pauciflora var. pauciflora		wire-lettuce	3	3	20	5	15	1	5	5	2	5	2			1		1
41	AST	Trichoptilium incisum		yellow-head																		10
42	AST	Viguiera parishii		Parish's viguiera	10		1	1	2	3		5					4	20	2	15	15	25
43	AST	Xylorhiza orcuttii		Orcutt's woody-aster					1
44	BIG	Chilopsis linearis ssp. arcuata		desert-willow	15
45	BOR	Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia		common fiddleneck																5	5
46	BOR	Cryptantha angustifolia		narrow-leaved cryptantha														1			1	35
47	BOR	Cryptantha barbigera		bearded cryptantha																1	1	3
48	BOR	Cryptantha intermedia		popcorn flower																	2
49	BOR	Cryptantha maritima		Guadalupe cryptantha														1				65
50	BOR	Cryptantha micrantha		purple-root cryptantha																1	10	99
51	BOR	Cryptantha nevadensis		Nevada cryptantha																		15
52	BOR	Cryptantha racemosa		bushy cryptantha					1									6
53	BOR	Pectocarya platycarpa		broad-fruited combseed																10
54	BOR	Pectocarya recurvata		curvenut combseed														99	5	30	4	50
55	BOR	Plagiobothrys arizonicus		Arizona popcorn flower															10	10	10
56	BOR	Tiquilia palmeri		Palmer's coldenia	10
57	BRA	Arabis perennans		perennial rock-cress																	10
58	BRA	Brassica tournefortii		*Asian mustard														5	5	10	30	99
59	BRA	Dithyrea californica		spectacle-pod																		50
60	BRA	Draba cuneifolia		wedge-leaved draba																		7
61	BRA	Guillenia lasiophylla		California mustard																		10
62	BRA	Hirschfeldia incana		*shortpod mustard				2
63	BRA	Lepidium lasiocarpum var. lasiocarpum		hairy-podded pepper-grass																		30
64	BRA	Lyrocarpa coulteri var. palmeri		Coulter's lyrepod										1							1	50
65	SOL	Lycium cooperi		Cooper's box-thorn																	1
66	BRA	Tropidocarpum gracile		slender tropidocarpum																1
67	CAC	Ferocactus cylindraceus		California barrel cactus																		20
68	CAC	Mammillaria dioica		California fish-hook cactus														1		1	6	99
69	CAP	Isomeris arborea		bladderpod	5		1													1
70	CHE	Atriplex hymenelytra		desert holly															1
71	CRA	Crassula connata		pygmy-weed																99	99
72	CUS	Cuscuta californica var. papillosa		papillate dodder	15
73	EUP	Chamaesyce albomarginata		rattlesnake weed			1													2
74	EUP	Chamaesyce melanadenia		red-gland spurge	5		10					10			3	1	15	10		4	50
75	EUP	Chamaesyce micromera		Sonoran spurge	10
76	EUP	Chamaesyce pediculifera		Carrizo Mountain spurge															20			16
77	EUP	Chamaesyce polycarpa		small-seeded spurge	5	10	20			10			10		10		3					10
78	EUP	Chamaesyce setiloba		Yuma spurge						25			2								21
79	EUP	Croton californicus		California croton	10	1					10	10									1
80	EUP	Ditaxis lanceolata		narrowleaf ditaxis		1			1	99					10		5	2	1		3	99
81	EUP	Ditaxis neomexicana		New Mexico ditaxis	5	15	13					5			1	1				2	3
82	EUP	Euphorbia eriantha		beetle spurge														2				4
83	EUP	Stillingia linearifolia		linear-leaved stillingia	3												3			2	10
84	FAB	Astragalus crotalariae		Salton milk-vetch					1
85	FAB	Caesalpinia virgata		wand holdback															6
86	FAB	Lotus rigidus		desert lotus														4			40	30
87	FAB	Lotus salsuginosus var. brevivexillus		short-bannered coastal lotus														3
88	FAB	Lotus scoparius var. brevialatus		short-winged deerweed											2		2	3	2	4	50
89	FAB	Lotus strigosus		strigose lotus																1	1
90	FAB	Lupinus arizonicus		Arizona lupine																		1
91	FAB	Lupinus concinnus		bajada lupine																1
92	FAB	Marina parryi		Parry's marina																		1
93	FAB	Psorothamnus emoryi		Emory's indigo-bush	15						2	10
94	FOU	Fouquieria splendens ssp. splendens		ocotillo	50	20	5	40	99	5	3	4			1			6	7	1	1	6
95	GER	Erodium cicutarium		*redstem filaree											20		35	10	30	20	50	99
96	GRO	Ribes indecorum		white-flowering currant																99
97	HYD	Emmenanthe penduliflora var. penduliflora		whispering bells																	2	75
98	HYD	Eucrypta micrantha		desert eucrypta																		25
99	HYD	Nama demissum var. demissum		purple mat																	15	30
100	HYD	Phacelia distans		common phacelia																3	15	50
101	HYD	Phacelia minor		wild canterbury bells																	1
102	LAM	Hyptis emoryi		desert-lavender	2	3	1		1	50	2	2	1			1		10	14		10	50
103	LAM	Salvia columbariae		chia																1
104	LOA	Mentzelia albicaulis		white-stemmed blazing star																		99
105	LOA	Petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi		Thurber's sandpaper-plant	99
106	LYT	Lythrum californicum		California loosestrife	3
107	MAL	Hibiscus denudatus		rock hibiscus												1
108	MAL	Horsfordia alata		pink velvet mallow																		1
109	MAL	Horsfordia newberryi		Newberry's velvet mallow																		4
110	NYC	Abronia villosa var. villosa		hairy sand-verbena	2
111	NYC	Allionia incarnata		trailing four o'clock	2				1													2
112	NYC	Mirabilis bigelovii var. retrorsa		wishbone plant		2									2		2	3		2	5	50
113	ONA	Camissonia boothii ssp. condensata		Booth's desert primrose																		2
114	ONA	Camissonia californica		California suncup																	1
115	ONA	Camissonia cardiophylla ssp. cardiophylla		heartleaf sun-cup	2	1				1								6
116	ONA	Camissonia claviformis ssp. peirsonii		brown-eyed primrose																		50
117	ONA	Camissonia pallida ssp. pallida		pale sun-cup															3	14	20	10
118	ONA	Camissonia refracta		narrow-leaf sun-cup																		10
119	ONA	Epilobium canum ssp. latifolium		mountain California-fuchsia			5
120	PAP	Eschscholzia minutiflora ssp. minutiflora		small-flowered poppy																5	5	25
121	PAP	Eschscholzia parishii		Parish's poppy																		5
122	POL	Loeseliastrum schottii		Schott's calico																	1
123	POL	Eriogonum davidsonii		Davidson's buckwheat	2	2						99	99	99			5	1
124	POL	Eriogonum deflexum var. deflexum		flat-topped buckwheat	RT				5
125	POL	Eriogonum elongatum var. elongatum		long-stemmed buckwheat	99	99		20		99	99	99	99	99				1
126	POL	Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifolium		California buckwheat	2	2	10	10			1				1		2	1	1		1
127	POL	Eriogonum gracile var. incultum		slender buckwheat			15								1
128	POL	Eriogonum inflatum		desert trumpet	30	10	1	10	30	15	10	10	5	6	10		3	5	1		1	1
129	POL	Eriogonum plumatella		yucca buckwheat			20
130	POL	Eriogonum wrightii var. nodosum		Wright's buckwheat		10	50	40		1	20	8	1	4	10		25	3			10
131	POR	Calyptridium monandrum		sand cress																	1
132	RHA	Ziziphus parryi var. parryi		lotebush																50
133	ROS	Prunus fremontii		desert apricot											11	2	20	2		10	10
134	RUT	Thamnosma montana		turpentine broom												1	2
135	SCR	Antirrhinum filipes		desert twining snapdragon																		1
136	SCR	Castilleja foliolosa		woolly Indian paintbrush																3
137	SCR	Mimulus bigelovii var. bigelovii		Bigelow's monkeyflower																		40
138	SIM	Simmondsia chinensis		jojoba															1			1
139	SOL	Datura discolor		desert thornapple	1
140	SOL	Datura wrightii		sacred datura	1		1	1
141	SOL	Lycium fremontii		Fremont box-thorn															3
142	SOL	Nicotiana obtusifolia		desert tobacco		1											15				10	2
143	SOL	Physalis crassifolia		thick-leaved ground cherry		1					1				5		10	1	6		3	4
144	TAM	Tamarix ramosissima		*saltcedar		1
145	VIS	Phoradendron californicum		desert mistletoe														1		2	1
146	ZYG	Fagonia laevis		California fagonia																	2	30
147	ZYG	Larrea tridentata		creosote bush	2	1												10	1	1	1	1
148	LIL	Agave deserti		desert agave					5		1				4	9	9	6	2	8	5	8
149	POA	Aristida adscensionis		six-weeks three-awn	2	2			1	1					20		25	10				10
150	POA	Aristida purpurea		purple three-awn							5	1						1		2		2
151	POA	Bouteloua aristidoides var. aristidoides		needle grama						7
152	POA	Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens		*red brome																	20
153	POA	Cynodon dactylon		*Bermuda grass	1
154	POA	Leptochloa uninervia		Mexican sprangletop	2
155	POA	Pennisetum setaceum		*fountain grass														2
156	POA	Pleuraphis rigida		big galleta													1
157	POA	Schismus barbatus		*Mediterranean schismus															5	30	99	99

Links to Other Webpages, etc. on Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Blooms

Anza-Borrego Desert Wildflowers: Where and When to Look and latest report (usually from Bill Sullivan) from the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park official site, with wildflower information on it. Click on the link near the bottom for the Flower Update and Map, which might be updated weekly.

DesertUSA Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Wildflower Reports For 2011

Carol Leigh's California Wildflower Hotsheet has been discontinued as of 30 March 2010, due to people harming some of the wildflower locations reported there, by trampling the wildflowers, picking them, and even lying on them. There's no better advice than what she left her readers with: Please walk gently on this earth.

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 2011)

Go to:

• Beginning of this page
• Pictorial Gallery of Species in Bloom , organized by flower color
• 2010-2011 Blooms
• 2009-2010 Blooms
• 2008-2009 Blooms
• Botanical Trail Reports for San Diego County, including Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
• The Borrego Desert
• Native and Introduced Plants of Southern California
• Plants Blooming in San Diego County

Copyright © 2008-2012 by Tom Chester, Kate Harper, and Mike Crouse.
Commercial rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce any or all of this page for individual or non-profit institutional internal use as long as credit is given to us at this source:
http://tchester.org/bd/blooms/2012.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Updated 13 February 2012