Desert Gold - Superbloom

Description:

This annual wildflower bears yellow blooms, very similar to sunflowers but smaller in size (as pictured). The plant grows 1 to 3 feet tall. In Death Valley, the plant flowers in February through May in the spring, and may do so again in the fall, if conditions are favorable. It as well goes by the names Desert Sunflower and Hairy Desert Sunflower. The flowers attract bees and birds…the birds also eat the seeds.

Habitat:

The El Nino rains have brought a once-in-a-decade opportunity for wildflowers to thrive in Death Valley, resulting in the Superbloom. Per the photos, the most visible flower in Death Valley is the Desert Gold, which this past week was blooming in the millions. Three factors, coming together at the right time, combine to produce the bloom…steady and abundant fall and winter rains, a warm late winter and early spring, and low wind activity in the spring that otherwise dries out/desiccates the wildflowers. Pictured in the background of two photos is 11,049 foot Telescope Peak. These flowers grow below and above sea level into the foothills of Death Valley.

Notes:

For many of us in the desert west, yellow flowers blooming in the spring in small clumps is routine. When those flowers bloom by the millions in one of the most hostile and barren parts of the world against a snow-capped mountain backdrop, it is a phenomenon. The temp while we were in Death Valley last week ranged from the 50’s at night to the mid-70’s during the day. Generally, Death Valley gets only 2 inches of rain per year…this past winter being an exception. In dry years, wildflowers are not as prominent. With temperatures climbing into the 120’s in July and August (record high was 134 F in 1934 in Furnace Creek…the hottest temperature ever recorded in history anywhere in the world), very little wildflower activity occurs. The flowers come out in the spring to produce seeds, and then wilt in April. We as well found a number of different types of wildflowers which were thriving due to the splendid conditions. The Superbloom may not occur again for many years.