esrosedotblog

BLOOM

Did I mention that the long anticipated desert flowers are here? They are a bit early because of the unprecedented high temperatures the last couple of weeks. Normally, a wet winter is followed by a flowery spring and that would be April. But, here they are, and they are gorgeous. We see them on walks and on bike rides: violet sand verbenia, the white desert poppy, small white flowers, purple flowers, yellow dandelion like blossoms and more; everywhere! Every bit of undisturbed land has them. There are even little flowers all over Franklin's squirrel/gopher lot and in the miserable sand wallow that we walk through many mornings to flush rabbits.

Yesterday, on the way up and back from Idyllwild, the mountain roadways were filled with bright yellow brittle bush; the water that gulleys down the roads gets the very dry bush all velvety and lush green. There is the scarlet something--I forget the full name of that bush and the wonderfully wierd ocotillo. Ocotillo looks like a bush stem but is technically a cactus that gets leaves and beautiful red-orange flowers at the end of very long stems; sometimes ten to twelve feet. You can see them in this picture; the biggest plants.

A less dramatic but interesting side effect of a wet winter is the dramatic rush of cactus growth. When you travel to higher levels here, the cactus varieties change per elevation. At the lower levels we have beaver tail, then the barrel cactus. As we go higher we see the teddy bear like cholla (ouch!). They all have big green nobs at the end of their branches; the product of a robust growth during this opportune time. Of the cacti, only the ocotillo is in bloom; the brilliant magenta beaver, yellow cholla and variously blossomed barrels will be out soon I think.