TravelCaliforniaRetire WellSan Diego

Spectacular 'Super Bloom' Is Just Days Away In This California Desert

It's about to transform into a sea of purple, yellow and white.
By 

Deputy Editor, Trends, HuffPost

Wildflowers in Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
Ron_Thomas via Getty Images
Wildflowers in Anza Borrego Desert State Park.

Southern Californians are in for a display of dazzling beauty, with an expected “super bloom” of wildflowers in the Anza-Borrego Desert within the next couple of weeks.

Wildflowers in the desert, about two hours east of San Diego, typically bloom annually. But this year’s bloom is expected to be grander than most because the desert has gotten more rain than usual since December, according to KPBS.

The extra precipitation has led to numerous wildflowers popping up. One of the most eye-popping of those is the sand verbena, which blankets the area with purple.

You only have a week or two to wait for an explosion of color in the desert.
Mark Boster via Getty Images
You only have a week or two to wait for an explosion of color in the desert.

Those flowers are just beginning to bloom now, as the San Diego Union Tribune documented on Friday.

Botanist Jim Dice, who is also the husband of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park superintendent, told the Tribune that the “prime” annual bloom is about a week or two away. If photos from previous years’ blooms are any indication, it should be an amazing sight.

Charles Krebs/CORBIS via Getty Images
Flowers brighten the desert on Feb. 15, 1999.
Danita Delimont via Getty Images
Abronia villosa is a species of sand-verbena more commonly known as desert sand-verbena and chaparral sand-verbena. It is a short, hairy annual wildflower that grows in creeping prostrate masses along the ground. It has oval-shaped, dull green leaves and many peduncles bearing rounded inflorescences of bright magenta or purplish-pink flowers. It grows in the sand of the deserts and coastlines. It has a very sweet fragrance and is also very sticky. They usually grow between February and May.
Charles Krebs via Getty Images
The Anzo-Borrego Desert in bloom.
Danita Delimont via Getty Images
The most iconic wildflower in the Anzo-Borrego is the purple sand verbena.
Ron and Patty Thomas via Getty Images
Desert Primrose and Sand Verbena in Anza Borrego State Part, California.
Don Bartletti via Getty Images
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park on March 18, 2008. A dune sunflower sticks up above the sand-hugging desert verbina in Coyote Canyon.
Danita Delimont via Getty Images
Sand verbena and white primroses blanket the desert.
Sumiko Scott via Getty Images
Purple sand verbena and white primroses in the Anzo-Borrego Desert.
tonda via Getty Images
Very colorfull, blooming Anza Borrego Desert in California.
Witold Skrypczak via Getty Images
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California, United States, North America.
Ron_Thomas via Getty Images
Spring Wildflowers In Anza Borrego Desert State Park, California.
Ron_Thomas via Getty Images
Spring Wildflowers In Anza Borrego Desert State Park, California.
Danita Delimont via Getty Images
Abronia villosa is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in sandy habitats from desert to beach.
Mark Boster/Los Angeles Time via Getty Images
Borrego Springs resident Jonathan Palacio runs through a field of desert sunflowers blooming along Henderson Canyon Road in Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Feb.14, 2005.

Related

CaliforniaRetire WellSan DiegobotanyAnza-Borrego Desert State Park
|
Submit a tip
Close