California's Super Bloom

[Botany]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/opinion/california-super-bloom-.html

[FakeNoose]

1. What are these - poppies?

It's amazing that there's so little variety, given that the flowers are growing wild. If this were a poppy farm it would be understandable, because somebody planted them there. But these are all volunteers, and the seeds were dormant for several years too.

[MineralMan]

4. All California poppies.

In other places, you'll see fields of yellow mustard flowers, brought here by the Spanish explorers, who scattered them to mark their route. since then, they have spread wildly and can cover entire hillsides along the coastal mountains. Other flowers also grow, Lupines, at higher elevations, and many others. Mustard and Poppies are the showiest, though, after very wet winters.

Here is a photo of mustard and lupine in the super bloom:



And here's one showing all three:

[sm6]

5. Wow

Thanks for sharing

[Hekate]

9. I would so love to see your final photo in real life. The colors, oh my

[MineralMan]

10. I know. The town I grew up in was surrounded by large hills and

even some mountains. Every few years, we'd get a display like that. Everyone in the valley it was in enjoyed the colorful view for the few days that it was there. It's sort of a unique thing in southern and central California, and happens just some years, although lesser displays are seen every spring.

That photo was taken in the Carrizzo Plain area in central California. It's well known for its spring wildflowers.

[WhiteTara]

7. Those are California Poppies

They are native to the area. Incredible, isn't it? I've transported them to Arkansas because I love them so much

[Hekate]

8. Poppies self-seed like mad as their pods burst. I am looking forward to more on my property ...

...in the coming years as I got them started this year near the spot-irrigation sprinklers. Once the original plants mature they will seed themselves into the non-irrigated areas and Mother Nature should do the rest.

There are lupines growing in the empty lot across the street, but I can scarcely see them except close up because of the tall non-native weeds they are growing in -- so much for variety. The first time I ever saw purple lupine I was driving past a barren-looking rocky area on Baseline in Cucamonga. They had no competition and just about knocked my eyes out they were so vivid.

These beautiful flowers are also known as fire-followers. The rain has to eventually follow the fires, of course, but the way has been cleared. The hills that remained so blackened by the Thomas Fire over a year ago have finally greened and are glowing with wild mustard along the coast. The foothills around my home are green again, and the mustard looks like splashes of sunlight.

Sorry -- I'm a little rapturous about the spring this year.

[niyad]

2. beautiful-- I remember a spring years ago with another super bloom in the desert. incredible!!

[wasupaloopa]

3. We use to live in Twin Oaks which is 18 mile into the mountains from Caliente on Caliente Creek.

We were thirty miles from Bakersfield, thirty miles from Tehachapi and and thirty miles from Lake Isabella. Smack dab in the middle of the boonies on twenty acres.

There were about 1200 people in a 20 square mile area.

One year we had a super bloom. Were covered with wild flowers.

I was a docent at a place where there were Native American rock paintings. I had to study the history of the area. I read about General Freemont coming through the Caliente Creek area in 1849 and he was very impressed with all the wild flowers he saw there.

[cally]

6. Just went and the it is better than the pictures

What’s impressed me the most, is the miles we drove seeing wildflowers. Most not this vivid or dense, but lots of smaller patches for about an hour of driving. I actually took a few similar pictures as above. The top one is the California Poppy reserve near the peak of the Grapevine in California.

A little tidbit, I stayed in Taft at a nice small hotel. Turns out it is an oil town!! I drive a plug in Prius and I was nervous but all was great.