Spring Blooms Go Bust in California Deserts

Where have all the flowers gone?

Fans who trek to California’s desert parks each spring to gawk at the floral annuals are wilted spirits this year. A drought has vexed the purple sand verbena and drubbed the desert gold.

“There’s really nothing in bloom here at all,” said Dale Housley, a ranger at Death Valley National Park. Typically the annuals peak about now in the valley and may bloom into June at higher elevations. But they require rain, which washes off the seed coating, in order to germinate, Housley said.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park has received about 1.6 inches this season, but it usually has several inches by now. It got about a quarter-inch last Sunday, but it was “too little, too late to bring about the bloom of annuals” except in some isolated, remote canyons, a spokesman said.