(# 2) Often spotted growing next to poppies during the spring, are lupines. Their purplish-to-bluish colored flowers contrast so well with the orange and yellow colors of poppies. Bees also love lupines, and frequently visit the little flowers. The flowers grow from the plants' slender upright stems, as shown in the left bottom photo. In years where there has been plenty of rainfall, lupines can be found carpeting the desert floor. In years where there has been very little rain, lupines can still be seen scattered along sandy areas and roadsides.
"The flowers are wonderful! Colors flow all around... like streams of fallen rainbows, soothing the driest ground." --from "Cactus garden" By Carolyn French |
In the above photo, poppies, lupines, and brittlebush are all growing together. Don't the colors look so nice.
In the bottom photo, bright orange poppies are blooming with lovely purplish-blue lupines. What beautiful colors! |
(# 3) Another flowering plant that can easily be spotted blooming in the springtime, is the brittlebush (right photo). These silvery-gray rounded shrubs can frequently be seen coloring rocky hillsides, roadsides, and washes with their golden yellow flowers. The flowers bloom on long stalks, just above the leafy stems. Brittlebush is a perennial plant, which means it lives for more than one year.
Did you know that the brittlebush, such as the one in the right photo, is a member of the sunflower family.
Did you know that the brittlebush, such as the one in the right photo, is a member of the sunflower family.
The photo to the left is of of a younger brittlebush. The plant is just about 2 feet (61 cm) tall. These shrubs can grow 4-5 feet (1.5 m) tall and wide, and live for many years. Notice the older dried flower stalks just above the leaves. The lighter colored leaves reflect sunlight, which helps keep the plants cool.
One Hairy Plant
Did you know that there are little hairs on the brittlebush? The hairs help protect the plant from heat and cold.
One Hairy Plant
Did you know that there are little hairs on the brittlebush? The hairs help protect the plant from heat and cold.
Close-Up of a Brittlebush Flower
Each flower head is around one inch (2.5 cm) across.
"Here I am! Come Over Here!"
The bright colors of desert flowers is one way the plants attract nectar, pollen, and seed-eating animals. It's the plants way of saying, "Here I am! Come over here!" Who can resist such brilliant colors! When animals, such as insects and birds, come to the flowers to feed, they help pollinate the plants. This enables the plants to make new plants--to reproduce.
So far, I've spoken of three common flowers that can be seen blooming in the spring. Now I'm going to share with you with three popular flowers that bloom during summer and early fall. Some of these can also be seen blooming during spring and summer.
(# 4) One of my favorite summer blooming plants, is the desert marigold. Like the brittlebush, desert marigolds are perennial plants. This means that the plants live for more than one growing season. The plants also grow soft fuzzy leaves. The leaves grow lower down on the plant, and are covered with silver-white hairs. These 1-2 (30-60 cm) feet tall plants can be found growing in sandy gravelly soil, along roadsides, washes, and mesas.
Desert marigolds grow beautiful bright yellow flowers at the ends of long thick stalks. Around 20 to 50 one-to-two inch (2.5-5 cm) flowers may be found growing on just one plant. Instead of dropping from the plant, the older flowers become papery and faded, and some turn downward. The plants can be seen flowering as early as March, and continue blooming off-and-on until November. That's a lot of months. No wonder people love the desert marigold!
Seed-eating desert birds, such as sparrows, love to eat the marigold's pale-tan colored seeds during fall.
Seed-eating desert birds, such as sparrows, love to eat the marigold's pale-tan colored seeds during fall.
(# 5) Commonly seen blooming alongside desert marigolds, are globemallows (left photo). Their cup-shaped apricot-orange flowers can be seen during early spring, summer, and fall. Globemallows prefer to grow in sandy, gravelly soil, along washes, roadsides, and hillsides. Look for clumps of stems around three feet (1 m) tall and wide. The gray-green leaves have scalloped edges, and are very hairy. Like the hairs on other desert plants, the tiny hairs help protect the plant from the desert's harsh weather, and from plant-eating animals. The hairs can irritate the animal's eyes. What a clever defense!
(# 6) Time for more yellow flowers! Yellow flowers look so beautiful in the green desert. One of the tiniest of yellow flowers, is called Many-bristle Cinchweed. These flowers are so tiny, that I had a hard time taking a clear photo, especially with my old camera. What these plants lack in size, they more than make up for in numbers. During late summer and early fall, the tiny little flowers can be seen carpeting the desert floor with beautiful shades of yellow. The plants dot the desert landscape with small circular mounds that are just a few inches high. The green leaves are very narrow, and the tiny seeds are carried by the wind. The seeds will remain on the desert floor until weather conditions are just right. Then, if there has been enough seasonal rains, the small annual plants will sprout from the soil, grow, and produce more showy displays of flowers before withering away. This is another way that plants survive in the desert.
"For one last memory of summer,
the sun shines upon the hottest sand,
and scatters the golden cinchweeds
across the dry and prickly land."
--Carolyn French