I met Tom Chester, Jane Strong and a group of wildflower enthusiasts to sample the primetime spring bloom of the Anza-Borrego desert floor, starting at Little Surprise Canyon and Galleta Meadows and continuing with several stops along DiGiorgio Road, Henderson Canyon Road and the S-22 to the Imperial County line. Even though the area had some decent rainfall in November/December and again recently, the amount was just not enough to create the kind of spectacular wildflower carpets that have appeared in some years. In addition, many areas are becoming inundated with Brassica tournefortii, and it is possible that at its current rate of spread the wildflower fields of Anza-Borrego could be mostly gone in 5-10 years. This is a depressing state of affairs, and as we saw last time in the Badlands, in some places there is essentially a monoculture of Saharan mustard. Nevertheless, no one was disappointed by the flowers that were on display, and many species were evident in great abundance. An upside-down V next to the common name indicates a taxon that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip, and an asterisk indicates a non-native species.

Mustard evening primrose
Camissonia californica
Brassicaceae

Bigelow's monkeyflower
Mimulus bigelovii var. bigelovii
Scrophulariaceae

Narrow-leaved cryptantha
Cryptantha angustifolia
Boraginaceae

Cheesebush
Hymenoclea salsola var. salsola
Asteraceae
(Left: Fruit with involucre. Right: Male flowers at top, female flowers beneath.)

Desert fivespot
Eremalche rotundifolia
Malvaceae

Thurber's stemsucker
Pilostyles thurberi
Apodanthaceae

Downy dalea
Dalea mollissima
Fabaceae

Desert chicory
Rafinesquia neomexicana
Asteraceae

Purple mat
Nama demissum var. demissum
Hydrophyllaceae

Yellow comet
Mentzelia affinis
Loasaceae

Checker fiddleneck
Amsinckia tessellata var. tessellata
Boraginaceae

Smooth-stemmed fagonia
Fagonia laevis
Zygophyllaceae

Creosote bush
Larrea tridentata
Zygophyllaceae