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2 comments:
Hi. Via this website I used to follow the spring progress of wildflowers whenever we anticipated a spring visit to Arizona: http://www.desertusa.com/wildflo/az.html. I think it's the Arizona subsection of the one you list for California among the links in your favorite websites.
Because they are unpredictable due to weather conditions, and offer a blessing of color in a landscape that may stay mostly brown and green the rest of the year, they are certainly a cause for celebration when they do appear.
It's a stretch to draw a parallel here to wildflowers in the East. But in New Hampshire on the East face of Mount Washington near the summit there is a nearly barren rocky area above treeline where only low-growing bushes and frost-hardy plants have even a fighting chance of survival. Yet in this little plateau there may be a late spring bloom of wildflowers. the area is called simply the Alpine Garden. It too is unpredictable and depends on weather conditions being right. But when they appear they are a joy to hikers visiting that lofty area, just as the desert wildflowers are to those that view them at just the right time.
Oddly, the Appalachian Mountain Club offers a guided trip up to the Alpine Garden and specifies dates. Maybe the bloom is more predictable than I thought or spans a long enough time to satisfy hikers who take a chance that their visit will overlap with the alpine bloom:
"Alpine & Wildflowers Weekend June 16-18, and Alpine Flower Watch Week June 10-18"
Wish I could go to see that display. Until then, I'll satisfy myself with this display. Not too variable; more so in the desert than in this sage scrub-type community. But precip amounts and timing do matter.
Obviously zero precip last year led to a predictable display of Zippo!
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