Desert Flora

Spring Flowers
After a winter of hearty rains, the desert explodes with wildflowers between March and May. One of the most colorful harbingers of spring is the Mexican gold poppy (Eschscholtzia mexicana). Its cup-shaped, butter-warm blossom is borne singly on stalks. Its leaves are bluish-green and fernlike. Its Spanish name, amapola del campo, means “poppy of the countryside.”

For more on the Mexican or Arizona poppy
http://www.desertusa.com/mag01/jul/papr/az_poppy.html

Coulter’s Lupine
Like lupine across North America, Lupinus sparsiflorus is a beautiful blue-lilac flower. The blooms are grouped along each erect stalk in open racemes. After ample rains, lupines flower from January through May.

For more on Coulter’s lupine
http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/mar/papr/deslupine.html

Other flora
Creosote bush
http://www.desertusa.com/creoste.html

Brittlebush
http://www.desertusa.com/april96/du_britbush.html

Cactus
http://www.desertusa.com/flora.html

Ocotillo
http://www.desertusa.com/nov96/du_ocotillo.html

Palo verde
http://www.desertusa.com/mag01/aug/papr/palov.html

Mormon tea
http://www.desertusa.com/april97/du_mormontea.html

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