Wildflowers in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, USA

Oct. 12^th, 2014. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on the Arizona-Mexico border south of Gila Bend. September 2014 was one of the wettest on record in the Sonoran Desert. The low desert areas of Organ Pipe were verdent green with creosote bush, palo verdes and brittle bush putting forth abundant new foliage. Few flowers though except for the not showy Mexican Jumping Bean. The foothills of the Ajo Mountains on the other hand had numerous things in bloom.

Aug. 31^st, 2014. Apache Trail northeast of Apache Junction passes between the north side of the Superstition Mountains and the string of man-made lakes and reservoirs on the Salt River. The spectacular geology of rhyolite is also very amenable to blooming shrubs and wildflowers.

Aug. 25^th, 2014. A week ago wide swaths of the Sonoran Desert were inundated with heavy tropical rains. With hot temperatures the floral response is nearly instantaneous.

May 10^th, 2014. With a high temperature expected above 35° my effort to find wildflowers ended before noon. What's blooming now is limited to mostly perennial herbs and woody shrubs. In canyon bottoms where available water is concentrated there remains plenty of color and great nature watching.

Mar. 30^th, 2014. A mini-Bio-Blitz spearheaded by members of the Phoenix Chapter of the Arizona Native Plant Society turned up more than 130 plants in bloom in Walnut Canyon and White Canyon Wilderness south of Superior Arizona. Many of the annuals were much smaller than there size after a proper amount of winter rain. We also observed birds, reptiles, butterflies, amphibians and mammals. Thus, despite the shortage of precipitation we found much to capture our attention:

Mar. 17^th, 2014. The welcome rain from March 1st has revived some annuals and spurred perennials to bloom. Several spots had thin, but bright yellow carpets of bladderpod. The following were found at the southern end of Rainbow Valley where it adjoins the North Maricopa Mountains Wilderness:

Mar. 8^th, 2014. Sure enough, last weekend our more than 2 months without rain ended with a substantial rainstorm that produced from 12 to 50 mm of rain across the Sonoran Desert. A few annuals that had nearly died have been revived, but it has been the perennials that have responded strongly and are now blooming well in some places. Today along US-60 east of Mesa there were plenty blooms expecially near the roadsides including Desert Marigold, Brittlebush, Creosote Bush, Parry's Beardtongue, and Canyon Ragweed. At Boyce Thompson Arboretum the gardens were ablaze with color and the desert trails offered the following among many other species:

Feb. 23^rd, 2014. The peak of springtime wildflowers may well be passed. Two months without rain have left annuals very small or absent, while shrubs are putting forth lackluster shows of color. But, wait! Next weekend is predicted to bring some rain. How much is anyone's guess.

Feb. 1^st, 2014. We were surprised to find many wildflowers blooming while touring Old US-80 along Arlington Mesa and the rocky hills near Gillespie Dam (s.w of Buckeye, AZ) Some decent rains in Nov-Dec 2013 were followed by very mild Dec and January temperatures. Several hillsides were all yellow with Bladderpod, a kind of mustard. Without significant rain during this February, the spring wildflower seasonnfor 2014 will be mostly very bleak.