Best superbloom since 2016 fills Death Valley with wildflowers

The driest place on Earth could soon be awash in wildflowers. Death Valley National Park in California is expected to have the best bloom year since 2016. According to the National Park Service, many of their sprouts have not even flowered yet, so the fleeting beauty is just beginning. 

Currently, the bright yellow desert gold (Geraea Canescens)is one of the most prominent flowers, with others blooming as well. As far as a timeline, the low-elevation flowers will likely persist until mid-to-late-March. Higher elevation flowers will likely have blooms from April through June. Bloom locations are updated on the National Park Service site. 

What is a superbloom?

Despite recording some of the hottest temperatures on the planet, Death Valley will have occasional wildflower displays in the spring. However, these are the exception and not the rules, and the conditions must be perfect for flowers to cover the desert. Superblooms tend to happen once a decade. The most recent superbloom years were 2016, 2005, and 1998. While there are some years with fewer blossoms, the flowers are never completely absent.

At least three main ingredients must come together for a good wildflower year. Rainfall during the fall, winter, and spring must be well spaced, temperatures must be warm enough, and the wind needs to be just right.

Ingredient #1: Rain

For a floral display to thrive, gentle rain that soaks directly into the soil is crucial. A rainstorm of a half inch or more will wash the protective coating off wildflower seeds, allowing them to sprout.

Subsequent rainstorms must then be evenly spaced throughout the winter and spring. Typically, the best blooms are triggered by an early, winter-type rainstorm in September or October, and are followed by an El Niño. This weather pattern brings higher than average rainfall to the Desert Southwest. 

Ingredient #2: Temperature

In the summer, Death Valley is basically inshospitable, with temperatures regularly exceeding 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet during other times of the year, it will typically be more moderate.

Some wildflower seeds sprout with cool winter storms and will often remain small and low to the ground. When the springtime sun starts to warm the soil, things can get exciting underground. A strong root system is developing below the surface, allowing the flowers to take hold. Once the temperature begins to warm up, the more well established plants will shoot up and start to bloom. 

Ingredient #3: Wind

Wind is very tricky. If springtime windstorms blow in without additional rain, a spring bloom can end very quickly or prevent it from happening in the first place. These winds can kill off delicate sprouts, as dry, moving air dehydrates the exposed surfaces of all living things—humans too. 

To help keep their moisture levels in check and protect themselves from wind, desert plants often have spiny, waxy, or hairy leaves. Wildflowers must grow and bloom before drying out, or before the late-spring heat arrives, so that they can scatter the seeds necessary for the next generation of blooms.

Is it all just hype?

While there is no denying that wildflowers of any kind are beautiful, in an age of social media, terms like “super bloom” can often take on a life of their own. More than 209,000 people visited Death Valley National Park during the 2016 superbloom, leading to traffic jams and damage to the ecosystem. In 2019, a poppy bloom near the small town of Elsinore in southern California attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors and some bad behavior from influencers. 

“Whether it rises to the status of a superbloom is in the eye of the beholder,” Naomi Fraga, a botanist at California Botanic Garden and associate professor at Claremont Graduate University, told SFGATE. “I personally wouldn’t classify it as a true super bloom only because it seems to be a bit localized and is not as widespread as I have seen in previous years. The Superbloom term seems to convey a kind of hype, that I think people expect something that is of an otherworldly quality.”

Whether it is truly a superbloom or not, good park behavior is critical to protect the landscape. California State Parks has a Don’t Doom the Bloom campaign, urging visitors to not pick the flowers, park only in designated spots, stay on designated trails, and do not step on them. 

 

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