Ipomopsis harvardii

Another beautiful flower photo, from BPOD, of course:

More Flowers...

These are all common flowers on the Anza Borrego; not much to say about them – just enjoy 'em!  As always, click to enlarge...

      

Beavertail Cactus...

Beavertail Cactus (Opuntia basilaris, a kind of prickly pear) is very common in the Anza Borrego.  We were a little late to catch it blooming on the desert floor, but in Rodriguez Canyon we saw dozens of plants in bloom (later because of the higher altitude).  This one also had a new pad just getting started...

 

Desert Globemallow...

One year, probably fifteen years ago, we caught the Desert Globemallow in bloom in the lower reaches of Rodriguez and Oriflamme Canyons, with hundreds of specimens within an easy walk of the road.  Ever since then, every time we travel these roads I keep searching for these beautiful flowers.  Debbie spotted one on Thursday – the only one we saw on the entire trip – no more than a foot from Rodriguez Canyon Road.  It was mostly done with blooming; just a few individual blossoms left of what must have been hundreds on this one plant.  Dang it!

Cactus...

I think this is a kind of prickly pear, but I'm not certain of that.  No doubt about the “prickly” part, though!

 

Rodriquez Canyon Greets Us...

Hoping to find some desert bloom remaining, we headed up the rough four-wheel drive road through Rodriguez Canyon.  This road climbs up from the desert floor through the rugged Rodriguez Canyon (still part of the Anza Borrego desert) on the eastern slopes of Cuyamaca Mountain.  As we turned on to the road, we found these flowers in abundance – almost as though placed there to greet us...

 

Lonely Little Lupine...

In one of our favorite little canyons to go wildflowering, there was almost nothing in bloom – a couple of chuparosa with a few blooms hanging on, and this one tiny little lupine poking up between some rocks on the dry stream bed...

Rosette...

Here's two photos of the rosette I posted earlier, with one closeup of the flower stalk.  We found this one just north of Agua Caliente airport, but their range is quite broad – we even have some of these in Lawson Valley (mainly on road cuts)...

 

Mystery Flower...

Here's a desert flower we're not familiar with, and I haven't identified it yet (anyone know?).  It's a late bloomer, in prime well after most of the desert flowers have gone to seed.  The color is striking enough, but what really stands out is the smell – sweet and vaguely reminiscent of coconut or suntan lotion.  We found a lot of these along S2 north of the Cabrizzo Badlands overlook...

 

Century Plant...

The century plant (Agave americana v. americana) is common in the southern Anza Borrego desert areas we visited.  We've never seen as many in bloom as we saw last Thursday, though...

 

Ocotillo...

An ocotillo in glorious bloom, from just north of the well-named town of Ocotillo, barely inside the Anza Borrego park border...

A Trip to the Desert...

I took a day off from work yesterday, and Debbie and I drove out to the Anza-Borrego desert to see the wildflowers.  We were a bit disappointed by the wildflowers – we were way too late to see them in prime – but not at all disappointed by the day, as we had several delightful surprises.

The biggest and best surprise you can see at right: we somehow managed to be in the right place at the right time to catch a group of Western Tanagers in their annual migration north (they normally are found in high-altitude conifer forests, not the desert!).  Altogether we saw 6 or 7 individuals.  The male in the photo at right didn't try very hard to get away from me – I was able to get just 3' (1 meter) away from him to take this photo with my macro lens.  I'm guessing that the poor little fellow was just too tired to bother flying away...

We did see quite a few flowers, some of them gorgeous and interesting, so the day wasn't a flower washout by any means.  But we didn't see things like acres of lupine and verbena; those were long past prime.  The ocotillo were still pretty darned good, Debbie spotted one lonely blooming globe-mallow for me (I've been looking for these since one trip years ago when we found thousands of plants on the lower stretches of Oriflamme Canyon Road), and we saw quite a few other flowering plants that I have not identified yet.  As usual on the desert, some of these had intense and unusual smells.  And also as usual, some were very odd looking, like the little rosette succulent at left that looks as if it were a visitor from a galaxy far, far away.

Some other highlights: feasted on a chicken-fried steak breakfast at Descanso Junction Restaurant, spotted a Brant goose (presumably also migratory) on the high stretches of Rodriguez Canyon, a male wild turkey in full display, found lilacs for sale in Wynola (and brought home three big bunches!), and stocked up on Dudley's bread and fruit bars.  A very nice day...

More photos in later posts...

Even More Desert Flowers...

These are the last of the photos from my visit to the desert two weeks ago. This batch are the ones that I haven't yet identified. The teensy yellow ones at right carpeted areas just south of S-2 and 78 (near Scissors Junction), in some places covering more than an acre.

Friends visited the desert this past weekend, and they tell me that nearly everything is past prime already – only the ocotillo and cactus are still looking good. My next weekend is (sadly) devoted to doing my 2007 tax returns, so it's unlikely that I'll get out there.

Closer to home, the ceanothus are gorgeous right now, and we have a few other flowers out as well. Most are still in the future, though. Our streams are still running, and our front yard is dominated by (gasp!) grass instead of fillary and other weeds. That won't last long, but we're sure enjoying it while we can. It's novel for us desert-dwellers to look out our window and see lush greenery!

I'm Baaaaack!

And to kick things off, here are a few more flower photos from two weekends ago...

I've been putting in some long hours at work, doing something very different and exciting with a small team of developers. Yesterday we hit our first milestone, very successfully. Software products are never actually “finished” – there are always bugs to fix and more features to put in. But there are usually a few identifiable moments in a software product's life, such as the first time you look at the product and think “Dang! We've really got something here!” That's the milestone we hit yesterday...

That's a lupine above and right; and some assortments below...

Desert Dandelion...

Here's a few photos of desert dandelion (Malacothrix californica), all on the Carrizo Badlands Overlook...

Parish's Poppy...

Parish's Poppy (Eschscholzia parishii) from the little no-name valley just south of Box Canyon, east side of S-2.

Cholla...

This is one of the several cholla species that grow in the Anza Borrego Desert, but I'm not certain which one it is. I liked the look of the new growth on it...

Cacti...

It's your morning dose of desert wildflowers, this time of three species all found in the little no-name canyon just south of Box Canyon on the east side of S-2. These photos were all taken last Saturday.

At right are the flower buds on a prickly pear, just about to burst into bloom. Hopefully it will still be in bloom when I return next week...

Very few of the larger barrels were in bloom – perhaps four individuals out of hundreds. The best of them is definitely yet to come...