The quiet riot

Springtime is peak season for wildflowers -- and for the throngs of people eager to see the eye-catching displays around California.

“This year will be particularly good because of the winter rainfall we’ve had, which will bring all the spring annuals to bloom,” says Naomi Fraga, botanical field studies coordinator at Claremont’s Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, home to the largest collection of native California flowers. Indeed, because much of California has a Mediterranean climate, many of the state’s wildflowers sprout from seed and produce blooms, completing an entire generation, within a year.

And though it seems counterintuitive, all those fires that ravaged Southern California last fall will also contribute to this season’s glory.

“After fires,” Fraga explains, “you’ll see flowers that you don’t normally see when the chaparral has had full growth. Certain species are fire followers -- they only germinate after fires -- so there’s more diversity and a very spectacular bloom.”

Most Californians know the usual places to admire the vernal splendor -- Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and various spots in and near Lancaster -- but seasoned color chasers know where to go to elude the crowds. Here, in south-to-north geographical order, are some of California’s less-visited places for ogling nature’s mosaic.

NORTH ALGODONES DUNES WILDERNESS

Near El Centro, this area is already displaying sun cup, desert lily, indigo bush and globemallow north of California 78. Off County Road S2, in the Vallecito Valley, are lupine, desert sand verbena and many of what Lili Singer, a Theodore Payne Foundation horticulturist, calls “belly flowers” -- blossoms so tiny that one must lie on one’s belly to see them. Go this month.

ANTA CATALINA ISLAND

March is a great time to see many of the island’s 400 native plants, as well as its 180 or so nonnative species. The palette will include felt-leaf ceanothus, giant coreopsis, shooting star, Catalina wild apple blossom, island snapdragon and an endemic variety of bigpod ceanothus.

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK

At the Cottonwood entrance on the park’s southern side, right off Interstate 10, are golden poppy (our state flower), purple Arizona lupine, bladder pod, notchleaf phacelia and desert star. Blooms are best here from February to April.

AN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINS

The flowers here are especially responsive after a fire season. This year, species that might not normally be seen, including light-lavender members of the phacelia family, as well as yellow whispering bells, will bloom near Crestline from late May into June. The same fire-following plants will also come up near Baldwin Lake in Big Bear Valley.

EATON CANYON NATURAL AREA

The foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena become ornamented with black mustard (a weed whose flowers are actually yellow), orange and yellow bush monkey, baby blue-eyes and, in post-fire seasons like this one, the beautiful Plummer’s mariposa lily. Go between April and June.

TOPANGA STATE PARK

This is another great spot for bush monkey flowers, baby blue-eyes and Plummer’s mariposa lily. Also abundant in the Santa Monica Mountains are the purple blooms of the phacelia. April through June are the most colorful months here.

FIGUEROA MOUNTAIN

The Santa Lucia district of northern Santa Barbara County’s Los Padres National Forest is a good place to behold California poppy, purple shooting star, sky lupine, chocolate lily and pitcher sage. There are colors from February to April, but the bloom is often best in late March and early April.

MOJAVE DESERT

The 26-mile stretch of California 127 between Shoshone and Dumont Dunes, just southeast of Death Valley National Park, will be sprinkled with desert sunflower and desert dandelion, brown-eyed primrose and the vibrantly violet purple mat, species that bloom from February to April.

SHORT CANYON

The area near Ridgecrest in Kern County boasts a consistently bright display with the prominent flowers being Bigelow’s coreopsis, a bright-yellow bloom in the sunflower family, and chia, a mint-family plant with pretty purple flowers. Also prevalent here are the desert dandelion, the brown-eyed primrose and the purple mat. Peak time here is March and April.

PINNACLES NATIONAL MONUMENT

This parkland, 70 driving miles east of Monterey, has more than 80% of its plants blooming from March through May. Particularly in April, its Juniper Canyon Trail is awash with golden yarrow, elegant clarkia, the popcorn flower, milkmaid, Douglas’s wallflower, Parry’s larkspur, common phacelia and the blue and white fiesta flower.

MT. DIABLO STATE PARK

The park, just east of the San Francisco Bay Area, boasts more than 400 plant species, many of which are endemic. From late February through May, hikers between Mitchell Canyon and Deer Flat are likely to see Indian paintbrush, blue larkspur, Chinese house, woodland star, owlclover, California buttercup, golden poppy, pygmy lupine and Mexican elderberry.

MONO BASIN

East of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada, the basin probably will have colorful species showing from late May through June. The Parker Bench area, between June Lake loop and the Mono Basin Scenic Area in Inyo National Forest (near Lee Vining), will be best, sporting arrowleaf balsamroot, sego lily and various species of phlox and lupine.

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WILD BLOOMS

For more ideas and news on what’s blooming where, consult the Theodore Payne Foundation’s Wildflower Hotline at www.theodorepayne.org /hotline.html. The site provides week-by-week information on wildflower sites throughout California.

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On travel.latimes.com

For photos of common California wildflowers, go to latimes.com /wildflowers.